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PHY 418: Statistical Mechanics I
Unit 4Unit 1 • Unit 2 • Unit 3 • Unit 4
Phase Transitions April 29 15 to May 7
Your solutions to Problem Set 12 are due Thursay, April 6, at 5pm Interactions between particles can be a crucial factor in determining the behavior of a system. In particular, they are important for understanding phase transitions, in which the macroscopic behavior of a system changes in some singular way as a thermodynamic parameter is varied. In this unit we will discuss phase transitions in the context of a class of simple models, that of interacting classical spins. One can think of these as a model for magnetic phase transitions, where each spin represents a local magnetic moment on an ion or atom. At high temperatures, most magnetic materials are paramagnetic (or diamagnetic) - the average magnetization of the system is zero unless there is an external applied magnetic field. But as one lowers T in some materials, there can be a ferromagnetic phase transition to a phase in which there can be a net magnetization even when the external magnetic field is zero. But such classical spin models also have wide application to other physical systems, such as the liquid-gas transition, ordering in binary alloys, and many others. Below is a list of links to the course notes for each topic in this unit, followed by links to recorded video lectures. Notes and Video Lectures
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