PHY 519 Statistical Mechanics II

Semester: Fall
Credit Hours: 4
Prerequisite: PHY 402, PHY 408, PHY 418

A continuation of PHY 418, involving the theory of imperfect gases, phase transition, and Brownian motion.

syllabus

1. Self similarity and scale invariance
2. Fractal geometrical structures
3. Transport phenomena on fractals
4. Random walks, self-avoiding walks and polymers
5. Percolation
6. Phenomenology of phase transitions: first and second order
7. The critical indices and their scaling relations
8. Scale invariance in magnetic systems
9. Simple models: Ising, Heisenberg, Potts, etc.
10. Mean field theories
11. Transfer matrix in quasi 1D systems
12. Series expansions: high and low temperature
13. Monte-Carlo computer simulations
14. Real space renormalization group in 1D
15. Approximate RSRG in higher dimensions
16. The Landau-Ginzburg theories
17. Their limitation: the Ginzburg criteria
18. Introduction to momentum-space RG and the epsilon expansion

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