Multicritical Point
Multicritical points are special points in the parameter space of thermodynamic or other systems with a continuous phase transition. At least two thermodynamic or other parameters must be adjusted to reach a multicritical point. At a multicritical point the system belongs to a universality class different from the "normal" universality class. A more detailed definition requires concepts from the theory of critical phenomena. Definition The union of all the points of the parameter space for which the system is critical is called a critical manifold. As an example consider a substance ferromagnetic below a transition temperature T_, and paramagnetic above T_c. The parameter space here is the temperature axis, and the critical manifold consists of the point T_c. Now add hydrostatic pressure P to the parameter space. Under hydrostatic pressure the substance normally still becomes ferromagnetic below a temperature T_(P). This leads to a critical curve in the (T,P) pla ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Phase Transition
In physics, chemistry, and other related fields like biology, a phase transition (or phase change) is the physical process of transition between one state of a medium and another. Commonly the term is used to refer to changes among the basic State of matter, states of matter: solid, liquid, and gas, and in rare cases, plasma (physics), plasma. A phase of a thermodynamic system and the states of matter have uniform physical property, physical properties. During a phase transition of a given medium, certain properties of the medium change as a result of the change of external conditions, such as temperature or pressure. This can be a discontinuous change; for example, a liquid may become gas upon heating to its boiling point, resulting in an abrupt change in volume. The identification of the external conditions at which a transformation occurs defines the phase transition point. Types of phase transition States of matter Phase transitions commonly refer to when a substance tran ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Magnet
A magnet is a material or object that produces a magnetic field. This magnetic field is invisible but is responsible for the most notable property of a magnet: a force that pulls on other ferromagnetic materials, such as iron, steel, nickel, cobalt, etc. and attracts or repels other magnets. A permanent magnet is an object made from a material that is magnetized and creates its own persistent magnetic field. An everyday example is a refrigerator magnet used to hold notes on a refrigerator door. Materials that can be magnetized, which are also the ones that are strongly attracted to a magnet, are called ferromagnetic (or ferrimagnetic). These include the elements iron, nickel and cobalt and their alloys, some alloys of rare-earth metals, and some naturally occurring minerals such as lodestone. Although ferromagnetic (and ferrimagnetic) materials are the only ones attracted to a magnet strongly enough to be commonly considered magnetic, all other substances respond weakly to ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Lee–Yang Theorem
In statistical mechanics, the Lee–Yang theorem states that if partition functions of certain models in statistical field theory with ferromagnetic interactions are considered as functions of an external field, then all zeros are purely imaginary (or on the unit circle after a change of variable). The first version was proved for the Ising model by . Their result was later extended to more general models by several people. Asano in 1970 extended the Lee–Yang theorem to the Heisenberg model and provided a simpler proof using Asano contractions. extended the Lee–Yang theorem to certain continuous probability distributions by approximating them by a superposition of Ising models. gave a general theorem stating roughly that the Lee–Yang theorem holds for a ferromagnetic interaction provided it holds for zero interaction. generalized Newman's result from measures on R to measures on higher-dimensional Euclidean space. There has been some speculation about a relationship ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ising Model
The Ising model (or Lenz–Ising model), named after the physicists Ernst Ising and Wilhelm Lenz, is a mathematical models in physics, mathematical model of ferromagnetism in statistical mechanics. The model consists of discrete variables that represent Nuclear magnetic moment, magnetic dipole moments of atomic "spins" that can be in one of two states (+1 or −1). The spins are arranged in a Graph (abstract data type), graph, usually a lattice (group), lattice (where the local structure repeats periodically in all directions), allowing each spin to interact with its neighbors. Neighboring spins that agree have a lower energy than those that disagree; the system tends to the lowest energy but heat disturbs this tendency, thus creating the possibility of different structural phases.The two-dimensional square-lattice Ising model is one of the simplest statistical models to show a phase transition. Though it is a highly simplified model of a magnetic material, the Ising model can sti ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Stoichiometric
Stoichiometry () is the relationships between the masses of reactants and products before, during, and following chemical reactions. Stoichiometry is based on the law of conservation of mass; the total mass of reactants must equal the total mass of products, so the relationship between reactants and products must form a ratio of positive integers. This means that if the amounts of the separate reactants are known, then the amount of the product can be calculated. Conversely, if one reactant has a known quantity and the quantity of the products can be empirically determined, then the amount of the other reactants can also be calculated. This is illustrated in the image here, where the unbalanced equation is: : : However, the current equation is imbalanced. The reactants have 4 hydrogen and 2 oxygen atoms, while the product has 2 hydrogen and 3 oxygen. To balance the hydrogen, a coefficient of 2 is added to the product H2O, and to fix the imbalance of oxygen, it is also added ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Evgeny Lifshitz
Evgeny Mikhailovich Lifshitz (; ; 21 February 1915 – 29 October 1985) was a leading Soviet physicist and brother of the physicist Ilya Lifshitz. Work Born into a Ukrainian Jewish family in Kharkov, Kharkov Governorate, Russian Empire (now Kharkiv, Ukraine). Lifshitz is well known in the field of general relativity for coauthoring the BKL conjecture concerning the nature of a ''generic curvature singularity''. , this is widely regarded as one of the most important open problems in the subject of classical gravitation. With Lev Landau, Lifshitz co-authored '' Course of Theoretical Physics'', an ambitious series of physics textbooks, in which the two aimed to provide a graduate-level introduction to the entire field of physics. These books are still considered invaluable and continue to be widely used. Lifshitz was the second of only 43 people ever to pass Landau's "Theoretical Minimum" examination. He made many invaluable contributions, in particular to quantum electrodynami ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Shmuel Shtrikman
Shmuel (Mula) Shtrikman (; 21 October 1930 to 11 November 2003) was an Israeli physicist, and a professor at the Weizmann Institute of Science. Winner of the Israel Prize for Research in Physics in 2003. Biography Born in Brest, Belarus (then Poland) to Abraham and Esther Shtrikman, sister of Sapir and brother of biochemist Nathan Sharon. Shtrikman immigrated to Israel with his family in 1934. In the first year the family lived in Kfar Saba; a year later they moved to Tel Aviv. In the 1948 Arab–Israeli War he served in the Air Force. Shtrikman began his studies at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology in 1950. After graduation with a BSc in 1954, he joined the Department of Electronics at the Weizmann Institute of Science, where he did his doctoral degree in Electrical Engineering, received in 1958. In 1967 he was appointed professor at the Weizmann Institute. In 1981 to 1982 he served as head of the department of the Electronic Physics Institute. In 1994 he was elec ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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ANNNI Model
In statistical physics, the axial (or anisotropic) next-nearest neighbor Ising model, usually known as the ANNNI model, is a variant of the Ising model. In the ANNNI model, competing ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic exchange interactions couple spins at nearest and next-nearest neighbor sites along one of the crystallographic axes of the lattice. The model is a prototype for complicated spatially modulated magnetic superstructures in crystals. To describe experimental results on magnetic orderings in erbium, the model was introduced in 1961 by Roger Elliott from the University of Oxford. The model has given its name in 1980 by Michael E. Fisher and Walter Selke, who analysed it first by Monte Carlo methods, and then by low temperature series expansions, showing the fascinating complexity of its phase diagram, including devil's staircases and a Lifshitz point. Indeed, it provides, for two- and three-dimensional systems, a theoretical basis for understanding numerous expe ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Helium-4
Helium-4 () is a stable isotope of the element helium. It is by far the more abundant of the two naturally occurring isotopes of helium, making up about 99.99986% of the helium on Earth. Its nucleus is identical to an alpha particle, and consists of two protons and two neutrons. Helium-4 makes up about one quarter of the ordinary matter in the universe by mass, with almost all of the rest being hydrogen. While nuclear fusion in stars also produces helium-4, most of the helium-4 in the Sun and in the universe is thought to have been produced during the Big Bang, known as " primordial helium". However, primordial helium-4 is largely absent from the Earth, having escaped during the high-temperature phase of Earth's formation. On Earth, most naturally occurring helium-4 is produced by the alpha decay of heavy elements in the Earth's crust, after the planet cooled and solidified. When liquid helium-4 is cooled to below , it becomes a superfluid, with properties very different from ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Universality Class
In statistical mechanics, a universality class is a collection of mathematical models which share a single scale-invariant limit under the process of renormalization group flow. While the models within a class may differ dramatically at finite scales, their behavior will become increasingly similar as the limit scale is approached. In particular, asymptotic phenomena such as critical exponents will be the same for all models in the class. Some well-studied universality classes are the ones containing the Ising model or the percolation theory at their respective phase transition points; these are both families of classes, one for each lattice dimension. Typically, a family of universality classes will have a lower and upper critical dimension: below the lower critical dimension, the universality class becomes degenerate (this dimension is 2d for the Ising model, or for directed percolation, but 1d for undirected percolation), and above the upper critical dimension the critical exp ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Helium-3
Helium-3 (3He see also helion) is a light, stable isotope of helium with two protons and one neutron. (In contrast, the most common isotope, helium-4, has two protons and two neutrons.) Helium-3 and hydrogen-1 are the only stable nuclides with more protons than neutrons. It was discovered in 1939. Helium-3 atoms are fermionic and become a superfluid at the temperature of 2.491 mK. Helium-3 occurs as a primordial nuclide, escaping from Earth's crust into its atmosphere and into outer space over millions of years. It is also thought to be a natural nucleogenic and cosmogenic nuclide, one produced when lithium is bombarded by natural neutrons, which can be released by spontaneous fission and by nuclear reactions with cosmic rays. Some found in the terrestrial atmosphere is a remnant of atmospheric and underwater nuclear weapons testing. Nuclear fusion using helium-3 has long been viewed as a desirable future energy source. The fusion of two of its atoms would be aneut ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |