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The effective field approach to a phase transition, used by Pierre Weiss at
the beginning of this century to describe theoretically ferromagnetic transitions
in iron, nickel, and cobalt, is the second oldest (surpassed in this
respect only by Van der Waals theory of liquid-vapor transitions) and certainly
the simplest approach to investigate cooperative phenomena of this
kind. Early in the effort to describe satisfactorily the rich variety of physical
phenomena accompanying a phase transition, it was realized that the role
of fluctuations, introduced by Einstein in 1905 (the same year in which he
introduced special relativity and the first successful explanation of the photoelectric
effect), was crucial to investigate the subtleties of the behavior of
systems undergoing phase changes at temperatures very close to the transition
temperature. Of course, the concept of effective field, being an average
or mean field, leaves out completely thermodynamic fluctuations. Nevertheless,
the effective field approach gives in most cases a good qualitative
description of the cooperative phenomena, and in some cases, ferroelectric
transitions being an outstanding example, it even gives a fairly good quantitative
description. It took some time for prominent theorists to realize
that deviations of "classical" (effective field) behavior in ferroelectrics and
dipolar ferromagnets should show up in the form of logarithmic corrections,
which are very hard to detect experimentally.
This book begins by introducing the effective field approach, the simplest approach to phase transitions. It provides an intuitive approximation to the physics of such diverse phenomena as liquid-vapor transitions, ferromagnetism, superconductivity, order-disorder in alloys, ferroelectricity, superfluidity and ferroelasticity. The connection between the effective field approach and Landau's theory is stressed. The main coverage is devoted to specific applications of the effective field concept to ferroelectric systems, both hydrogen bonded ferroelectrics, like those in the TGS family, and oxide ferroelectrics, like pure and mixed perovskites. |
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 Beginning Visual Basic .NET DatabasesThis book is for programmers with some basic experience of Visual Basic .NET, who want to begin
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and data. Seriously though, welcome to the world of databases in ASP.NET.
The idea for this kind of book isn’t new, but if... |
Computer Crime: A Crimefighter's Handbook (Computer Security)
Terrorist attacks on computer centers, electronic fraud on international funds transfer networks, viruses and worms in our software, corporate espionage on business networks, and crackers breaking into systems on the Internet...Computer criminals are becoming ever more technically sophisticated, and it's an increasing challenge to keep up... | | Retailing
Full color, completely current, and packed with practical applications, the sixth edition of the market-leading RETAILING delivers the inside track to the fast-moving retail industry. RETAILING is written by one of the most seasoned author teams in the market. Professor Dunne has more than 40 years of university teaching experience, nine... | | Getting Started with Roo
This is my first book with O’Reilly, and I’m very grateful for their help and encouragement.
Their editorial team is first class, and efficient. It was great working with you.
I, like many of you, have been using Spring for a long, long time. I wasn’t initially
convinced I needed Spring Roo (to be honest). It... |
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