Supercritical Anomalies and the Widom Line for the Isostructural Phase Transition in Solids

The representation of the Widom line as a line of maximums of the correlation length and a whole set of thermodynamic response functions above the critical point were introduced to describe anomalies observed in water above the hypothetical critical point of the liquid-liquid transition. The supercritical region for the gas-liquid transition was also described later in terms of the Widom line. It is natural to assume that an analogue of the Widom line also exists in the supercritical region for the first-order isostructural transition in crystals, which ends at a critical point. We use a simple semiphenomenological model, close in spirit the van der Waals theory, to study the properties of the new Widom line. We calculate the thermodynamic response functions above the critical point of the isostructural transition and find their maximums determining the Widom line position.     

Smoothness of transition maps in singular perturbation problems with one fast variable

This paper deals with the smoothness of the transition map between two sections transverse to the fast flow of a singularly perturbed vector field (one fast, multiple slow directions). Orbits connecting both sections are canard orbits, i.e. they first move rapidly towards the attracting part of a critical surface, then travel a distance near this critical surface, even beyond the point where the orbit enters the repelling part of the critical surface, and finally repel away from the surface. We prove that the transition map is smooth. In a transcritical situation however, where orbits from an attracting part of one critical manifold follow the repelling part of another critical manifold, the smoothness of the transition map may be limited, due to resonance phenomena that are revealed by blowing up the turning point! We present a polynomial example in R³.     

Bose condensation: The viscosity critical dimension and developed turbulence

We propose a model for studying the mutual influence of critical fluctuations in the vicinity of the critical point of phase transition to a superfluid state and the velocity fluctuations in the developed turbulence regime. We demonstrate the presence of two different regimes: the turbulence regime and the equilibrium regime. We show that the standard critical behavior can break in the turbulence regime. The viscosity becomes an infrared-irrelevant parameter in the equilibrium regime. We justify the assumption that the viscosity critical dimension in this regime is determined by critical indices of the critical behavior statistical model, which are currently known with sufficient accuracy.     

Gauge theory of the liquid-glass transition in static and dynamical approaches

We propose static and dynamical formulations of the liquid-glass transition theory based on the glass gauge theory and the fluctuation theory of phase transitions. In accordance with the proposed theory, the liquid-glass transition is an unattainable second-order phase transition blocked by a premature critical slowing of the gauge field relaxation caused by the system frustration. We show that the proposed theory qualitatively agrees well with experimental data.     

Critical Point in the Problem of Maximizing the Transition Probability Using Measurements in an <Emphasis Type="Italic">n</Emphasis>-Level Quantum System

We consider the problem of maximizing the transition probability in an n-level quantum system from a given initial state to a given final state using nonselective quantum measurements. We find a sequence of measurements that is a critical point of the transition probability and, moreover, a local maximum in each variable on the set of one-dimensional projectors. We consider the class of one-dimensional projectors because these projectors describe the measurements of populations of pure states of the system.     

Droplet minimizers for the Cahn-Hilliard free energy functional

We prove theorems characterizing the minimizers for the Cahn-Hilliard free energy functional, which is used to describe the liquid vapor phase transition (or the 2 state magnetization transition). In particular, we exactly determine the critical density for droplet formation, and the geometry of the droplets.     

Temperature Green’s functions in Fermi systems: The superconducting phase transition

We consider the model of an equilibrium Fermi system of arbitrary-spin particles with the density-densitytype interaction. Based on the microscopic Hamiltonian in the formalism of temperature Green’s functions, we find critical modes and construct an effective action describing a neighborhood of the phase transition point. A renormalization group analysis of the obtained model leads to the standard critical behavior indices for spin-1/2 fermions but shows that in the system of higher-spin fermions, a first-order phase transition occurs whose temperature exceeds the standard estimates for the temperature of a second-order phase transition.     

Microscopic justification of the stochastic f-model of critical dynamics

We use a microscopic approach to derive the stochastic Langevin equations for a quantum Bose liquid near the phase transition to the superfluid state. These equations can be obtained in local form if either the finiteness of the system dimensions or the boundedness of the time interval under study is taken into account. We give the microscopic expressions for random forces in the stochastic equations and show that the white noise approximation holds only in the critical region. We prove that the model for properly describing the critical fluctuations is precisely the F-model.     

The effect of strongly anisotropic turbulent mixing on critical behavior: Renormalization group analysis of two nonstandard systems

We consider the effect of strongly anisotropic turbulent mixing on the critical behavior of two systems: a φ ³ critical dynamics model describing universal properties of metastable states in the vicinity of a firstorder phase transition and a reaction-diffusion system near the point of a second-order transition between fluctuation and absorption states (a simple epidemic process or the Gribov process). In both cases, we demonstrate the existence of a new strongly nonequilibrium, anisotropic scaling regime (universality class) for which both the mixing and the nonlinearity in the order parameter are relevant. We evaluate the corresponding critical dimensions in the one-loop approximation of the renormalization group.     

Dynamics of a two-frequency parametrically driven duffing oscillator

Summary We investigate the transition from two-frequency quasiperiodicity to chaotic behavior in a model for a quasiperiodically driven magnetoelastic ribbon. The model system is a two-frequency parametrically driven Duffing oscillator. As a driving parameter is increased, the route to chaos takes place in four distinct stages. The first stage is a torus-doubling bifurcation. The second stage is a transition from the doubled torus to a strange nonchaotic attractor. The third stage is a transition from the strange nonchaotic attractor to a geometrically similar chaotic attractor. The final stage is a hard transition to a much larger chaotic attractor. This latter transition arises as the result of acrisis, the characterization of which is one of our primary concerns. Numerical evidence is given to indicate that the crisis arises from the collision of the chaotic attractor with the stable manifold of a saddle torus. Intermittent bursting behavior is present after the crisis with the mean time between bursts scaling as a power law in the distance from the critical control parameter; τ ∼ (A-A_c)^-α. The critical exponent is computed numerically, yielding the value α=1.03±0.01. Theoretical justification is given for the computed critical exponent. Finally, a Melnikov analysis is performed, yielding an expression for transverse crossings of the stable and unstable manifolds of the crisis-initiating saddle torus.