Statistical Mechanics of Phase Transitions J. M. Yeomans
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Solvable Models in Algebraic Statistical Mechanics (Science Research Papers);D.A. Over the past few decades the powerful methods of statistical physics and Euclidean quantum field theory have moved closer together, with common tools based on the use of path integrals. One way to detect a quantum phase transition is simply to notice that ground state depends very sensitively on the parameters near such a point. This classic text, first published in 3993, is designed for graduate physics courses in statistical mechanics. The research topics include superconductivity, quantum phase transitions, the physics of novel materials and nanostructures, and quantum computation. We investigate Lee-Yang zeros of generating functions of dynamical observables and establish a general relation between phase transitions in ensembles of trajectories of stochastic many-body systems and the time evolution of high-order cumulants of such observables. Taylor does theoretical and computational research in the area of statistical mechanics of liquids, complex fluids and macromolecules. A new mean field statistical mechanics model of two interacting groups of spins is introduced and the phase transition studied in terms of their relative size. Personal Research Web Page: http://csc.ucdavis.edu/~chaos/ Keywords: Machine learning, physics of computation, evolutionary search, information theory, nonlinear dynamics, statistical mechanics, computational mechanics Crutchfield has worked in the areas of nonlinear dynamics, solid-state physics, astrophysics, fluid mechanics, critical phenomena and phase transitions, chaos, and pattern formation. But we can also turn it around: “Physics is informational”. 2School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, United Kingdom. Several chapters are then devoted to an introduction to simple lattice field theories and a variety of spin systems with discrete and continuous spins, where the ubiquitous Ising model serves as an ideal guide for introducing the fascinating area of phase transitions. Received 18 September 2012; published 28 January 2013.