Critical phenomena arise in a wide variety of physical systems. Classi cal examples are the liquid-vapour critical point or the paramagnetic ferromagnetic transition. Further examples include multicomponent fluids and alloys, superfluids, superconductors, polymers and fully developed tur bulence and may even extend to the quark-gluon plasma and the early uni verse as a whole. Early theoretical investigators tried to reduce the problem to a very small number of degrees of freedom, such as the van der Waals equation and mean field approximations, culminating in Landau's general theory of...
Critical phenomena arise in a wide variety of physical systems. Classi cal examples are the liquid-vapour critical point or the paramagnetic ferromagn...
"The career structure and funding of the universities . . . ] currently strongly d- courages academics and faculties from putting any investment into teaching - there are no career or ?nancial rewards in it. This is a great pity, because . . . ] it is the need toengage indialogue, and to makethings logicaland clear, that istheprimary defence against obscurantism and abstraction. " B. Ward-Perkins, The fall of Rome, Oxford (2005) This is the ?rst volume of a planned two-volume treatise on non-equilibrium phase transitions. While such a topic might sound rather special and a- demic,...
"The career structure and funding of the universities . . . ] currently strongly d- courages academics and faculties from putting any investment into...
Critical phenomena arise in a wide variety of physical systems. Classi- cal examples are the liquid-vapour critical point or the paramagnetic- ferromagnetic transition. Further examples include multicomponent fluids and alloys, superfluids, superconductors, polymers and fully developed tur- bulence and may even extend to the quark-gluon plasma and the early uni- verse as a whole. Early theoretical investigators tried to reduce the problem to a very small number of degrees of freedom, such as the van der Waals equation and mean field approximations, culminating in Landau's general theory of...
Critical phenomena arise in a wide variety of physical systems. Classi- cal examples are the liquid-vapour critical point or the paramagnetic- ferroma...
The history of critical phenomena goes back to the year 1869 when Andrews discovered the critical point of carbon dioxide, located at about 31 C and 73 atmospheres pressure. In the neighborhood ofthis point the carbon dioxide was observed to become opalescent, that is, light is strongly scattered. This is nowadays interpreted as comingfrom the strong fluctuations of the system close to the critical point. Subsequently, a wide varietyofphysicalsystems were realized to display critical points as well. Ofparticular importance was the observation of a critical point in ferromagnetic iron by...
The history of critical phenomena goes back to the year 1869 when Andrews discovered the critical point of carbon dioxide, located at about 31 C and 7...
The importance of knowledge consists not only in its direct practical utility but also in the fact the it promotes a widely contemplative habit of mind; on this ground, utility is to be found in much of the knowledge that is nowadays labelled useless . Bertrand Russel, In Praise of Idleness, London (1935) Why are scientists in so many cases so deeply interested in their work ? Is it merely because it is useful ? It is only necessary to talk to such scientists to discover that the utilitarian possibilities of their work are generally of secondary interest to them. Something else is primary....
The importance of knowledge consists not only in its direct practical utility but also in the fact the it promotes a widely contemplative habit of min...
