The Physics of Phase Transitions occupies an important place at the crossroads of several fields central to materials sciences. This second edition incorporates new developments in the states of matter physics, in particular in the domain of nanomaterials and atomic Bose-Einstein condensates where progress is accelerating. New information and application examples are included. This work deals with all classes of phase transitions in fluids and solids, containing chapters on evaporation, melting, solidification, magnetic transitions, critical phenomena, superconductivity, and more. End-of-chapter problems and complete answers are included.

The book provides an introduction to the physics which underlies phase transitions and to the theoretical techniques currently at our disposal for understanding them. It will be useful for advanced undergraduates, for post-graduate students undertaking research in related fields, and for established researchers in experimental physics, chemistry, and metallurgy as an exposition of current theoretical understanding. - ;Recent developments have led to a good understanding of universality; why phase transitions in systems as diverse as magnets, fluids, liquid crystals, and superconductors can be brought under the same theoretical umbrella and well described by simple models. This book describes the physics underlying universality and then lays out the theoretical approaches now available for studying phase transitions. Traditional techniques, mean-field theory, series expansions, and the transfer matrix, are described; the Monte Carlo method is covered, and two chapters are devoted to the renormalization group, which led to a break-through in the field. The book will be useful as a textbook for a course in `Phase Transitions', as an introduction for graduate students undertaking research in related fields, and as an overview for scientists in other disciplines who work with phase transitions but who are not aware of the current tools in the armoury of the theoretical physicist. - ;Introduction; Statistical mechanics and thermodynamics; Models; Mean-field theories; The transfer matrix; Series expansions; Monte Carlo simulations; The renormalization group; Implementations of the renormalization group. -

A clear, concise and rigorous textbook covering phase transitions in the context of advances in electronic structure and statistical mechanics.

Intended for readers with some prior knowledge of condensed-matter physics, this text emphasises the basic physics behind spontaneous structural changes in crystals. Starting with the relevant thermodynamic principles, the author discusses the nature of order variables and their collective motion in a crystal lattice. He also goes on to describe experimental methods for modulated crystal structures and gives examples of structural changes in representative systems. Both a graduate text and reference work.

Covering the elementary aspects of the physics of phases transitions and the renormalization group, this popular book is widely used both for core graduate statistical mechanics courses as well as for more specialized courses. Emphasizing understanding and clarity rather than technical manipulation, these lectures de-mystify the subject and show precisely "how things work." Goldenfeld keeps in mind a reader who wants to understand why things are done, what the results are, and what in principle can go wrong. The book reaches both experimentalists and theorists, students and even active researchers, and assumes only a prior knowledge of statistical mechanics at the introductory graduate level.Advanced, never-before-printed topics on the applications of renormalization group far from equilibrium and to partial differential equations add to the uniqueness of this book.

This book provides a comprehensive review of the theory of phase transitions and its modern applications, based on the five pillars of the modern theory of phase transitions: the Ising model, mean field, scaling, renormalization group and universality. This expanded second edition includes, along with a description of vortices and high temperature superconductivity, a discussion of phase transitions in chemical reactions and moving systems. The book covers the close connection between phase transitions and small world phenomena as well as scale-free systems such as the stock market and the Internet.

Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop, held in Volga River, Russia, 24-28 May 2001