Salt-induced effective interactions and phase separation of an ultrasoft model of polyelectrolytes

We use a semi-grand canonical version of mean-field density functional theory to determine the total effective interaction energy of a solution of penetrable polyions characterised by a Gaussian charge distribution, in the presence of added salt. We then apply this effective representation of semi-flexible polyelectrolyte chains to investigate the possibility of a phase separation similar to that predicted earlier for charge-stabilised hard-sphere colloids. Apart from the absence of a hard-core repulsion, the effective pair potential is similar to the familiar Derjaguin-Landau-Verwey-Overbeek (DLVO) potential between charged-stabilised colloids, i.e. of the screened-Coulomb (Yukawa) form, but the effective valence of the polyions differs significantly from that of the DLVO pair potential, especially at high salt concentration. The existence of a well-defined closed-loop spinodal curve predicted by our mean-field calculation points to a phase separation between solutions with high and low polyion concentrations under reasonable physical conditions. The salt concentration at the upper critical point is typically two orders of magnitude larger than in the case of hard-core polyions, indicating that polyion penetrability appears to enhance the tendency towards phase separation.     

The measurements of coexistence curves and critical behavior of a binary mixture with a high molecular weight polymer

The critical behavior of solutions of poly (diallydimethylammonium chloride) (PDDAC, M_w = 3.2 × 10⁵) in the critical binary mixture of isobutyric acid (I) + water (W) was studied by the refractive index measurements. The measurements were performed at three different PDDAC concentrations near and far away from the critical point. We observed that the critical temperatures increase linearly with increasing the concentration of PDDAC. As the distance from the critical point increases, the system exhibits a crossover from the renormalized Ising critical behavior to the mean-field one. For the solutions with the highest PDDAC concentration, experiments suggest a crossover to tricritical behavior.     

Sharp signature of a dx2-y2 quantum critical point in the Hall coefficient of cuprate superconductors

We study the behavior of the Hall coefficient, R(H), in a system exhibiting dx(2)(-y(2)) density-wave order in a regime in which the carrier concentration, x, is tuned to approach a quantum critical point at which the order is destroyed. At the mean-field level, we find that n(Hall)=1/R(H) evinces a sharp signature of the transition. There is a kink in n(Hall) at the critical value of the carrier concentration, x(c); as the critical point is approached from the ordered side, the slope of n(Hall) diverges. Hall transport experiments in the cuprates, at high magnetic fields sufficient to destroy superconductivity, should reveal this effect.     

Crossover Between Mean-Field and Ising Critical Behavior in a Lattice-Gas Reaction-Diffusion Model

Lattice-gas models for CO oxidation can exhibit a discontinuous nonequilibrium transition between reactive and inactive states, which disappears above a critical CO-desorption rate. Using finite-size-scaling analysis, we demonstrate a crossover from Ising to mean-field behavior at the critical point, with increasing surface mobility of adsorbed CO or with decreasing system size. This behavior is elucidated by analogy with that of equilibrium Ising-type systems with long-range interactions.     

Exact order-parameter distribution for critical mean-field percolation and critical aggregation

We show that the order-parameter distribution for the mean-field percolation at the critical point is the Kolmogorov-Smirnov distribution and that it coincides with the corresponding distribution for a mean-field aggregation process at the critical time. Both processes are known to belong to the same universality class in the sense that they share the same set of critical exponents, but percolation is at the equilibrium while the aggregation is a dynamical critical process. This shows that, in this case, the probability density for order-parameter fluctuations is universal at the critical point of the infinite lattice, independent of the hypothesis of thermodynamic equilibrium.     

Dynamic susceptibility of a spin ice near the critical point

We consider spin ice magnets (primarily, Dy₂Ti₂O₇ in the vicinity of their critical point on the (H, T) plane. We find that the longitudinal susceptibility diverges at the critical point, leading to the behavior qualitatively similar to the one which would result from non-zero conductance of magnetic charges. We show that dynamics of critical fluctuations belongs to the universality class of easy-axis ferroelectric and calculate logarithmic corrections (within two-loop approximation) to the mean-field critical behavior.     

Equilibration and relaxation times at the chiral phase transition including reheating

We investigate the relaxational dynamics of the order parameter of chiral symmetry breaking, the sigma mean-field, with a heat bath consisting of quarks and antiquarks. A semiclassical stochastic Langevin equation of motion is obtained from the linear sigma model with constituent quarks. The equilibration of the system is studied for a first order phase transition and a critical point, where a different behavior is found. At the first order phase transition we observe the phase coexistence and at a critical point the phenomenon of critical slowing down with large relaxation times. We go beyond existing Langevin studies and include reheating of the heat bath by determining the energy dissipation during the relaxational process. The energy of the entire system is conserved. In a critical point scenario we again observe critical slowing down.     

Lyapunov exponents in unstable systems

We investigate the dynamical behavior of unstable systems in the vicinity of the critical point associated with a liquid-gas phase transition. By considering a mean-field treatment, we first perform a linear analysis and discuss the instability growth times. Then, coming to complete Vlasov simulations, we investigate the role of nonlinear effects and calculate the Lyapunov exponents. As a main result, we find that near the critical point, the Lyapunov exponents exhibit a power-law behavior, with a critical exponent beta=0.5. This suggests that in thermodynamical systems the Lyapunov exponent behaves as an order parameter to signal the transition from the liquid to the gas phase.     

The Triangle Condition for Contact Processes on Homogeneous Trees

We complete work of C. C. Wu, by showing that for contact processes on homogeneous trees with degree at least 3 the triangle condition is satisfied below the second critical point. In particular it holds at the first critical point and therefore at this critical point the contact process has mean-field critical exponents.     

双层Heisenberg反铁磁体中的量子相变

用键算符平均场方法研究了双层正方格子Heisenberg反铁磁体中的量子相变问题.得到的临界点以及低温下的量子临界行为符合相关的数值计算结果和非线性σ模型的结果.在数值计算不能达到的极低温度范围（T≤0.3J₁,J₁为面内最近邻反铁磁交换作用）,给出了量子临界行为的新证据. 关键词：     

Critical behavior of dilute electrolyte solutions

A theory of the critical behavior of a dilute ionic solution is constructed. An expression for the susceptibility in a wide temperature range is obtained. It is shown that ionic solutions belong to the universality class of the Ising model. The Ginzburg parameter of the ionic solutions decreases with the increase of the solvent concentration. In the general case, the critical exponent of susceptibility nonmonotonically depends on the temperature in the crossover region from the Ising-like to the mean-field behavior. In the vicinity of the transition point, the Debye-Hückel screening radius is proportional to the correlation length. As T→T _c, the screening radius tends to infinity and the screening disappears. The voltage between the two phases of the ionic solution is proportional to the order parameter and changes as |T/T _c?1|^β in the vicinity of the phase transition point.     

Nonequilibrium quantum phase transition in itinerant electron systems

We study the effect of the voltage bias on the ferromagnetic phase transition in a one-dimensional itinerant electron system. The applied voltage drives the system into a nonequilibrium steady state with a nonzero electric current. The bias changes the universality class of the second order ferromagnetic transition. While the equilibrium transition belongs to the universality class of the uniaxial ferroelectric, we find the mean-field behavior near the nonequilibrium critical point.     

Mean-field renormalization-group study of surface magnetism

Surface effects on critical behavior in a semi-infinite Ising ferromagnet with a free surface, the random field or amorphization at the surface only, are investigated by the use of the mean-field renormalization-group method.     

Crossover Critical Behavior in the Three-Dimensional Ising Model

The character of critical behavior in physical systems depends on the range of interactions. In the limit of infinite range of the interactions, systems will exhibit mean-field critical behavior, i.e., critical behavior not affected by fluctuations of the order parameter. If the interaction range is finite, the critical behavior asymptotically close to the critical point is determined by fluctuations and the actual critical behavior depends on the particular universality class. A variety of systems, including fluids and anisotropic ferromagnets, belongs to the three-dimensional Ising universality class. Recent numerical studies of Ising models with different interaction ranges have revealed a spectacular crossover between the asymptotic fluctuation-induced critical behavior and mean-field-type critical behavior. In this work, we compare these numerical results with a crossover Landau model based on renormalization-group matching. For this purpose we consider an application of the crossover Landau model to the three-dimensional Ising model without fitting to any adjustable parameters. The crossover behavior of the critical susceptibility and of the order parameter is analyzed over a broad range (ten orders) of the scaled distance to the critical temperature. The dependence of the coupling constant on the interaction range, governing the crossover critical behavior, is discussed.     

Tetra point wetting at the free surface of liquid Ga-Bi

A continuous surface wetting transition, pinned to a solid-liquid-liquid-vapor tetra coexistence point, is studied by x-ray reflectivity in liquid Ga-Bi binary alloys. The short-range surface potential is determined from the measured temperature evolution of the wetting film. The thermal fluctuations are shown to be insufficient to induce a noticeable breakdown of mean-field behavior, expected in short-range-interacting systems due to their d(u) = 3 upper critical dimensionality.     

Thermodynamic properties of the superconductivity in quasi-two-dimensional Dirac electronic systems

The thermodynamic properties of superconducting Dirac electronic systems is analyzed in the vicinity of quantum critical point. The system is characterized by a quantum critical point at zero doping, such that the critical temperature vanishes below some finite value of interaction strength. It is found that the specific heat jump of the system largely deviates from the conventional BCS theory value in the vicinity of quantum critical point. We investigated the region of applicability of the mean-field theory using the Ginzburg-Landau functional.     

Dynamic phase transition in the kinetic spin-5/2 Blume–Emery–Griffiths model in an oscillating external magnetic field

Employing a mean-field approach, we study the stationary states of the kinetic spin-5/2 Blume–Emery–Griffiths (BEG) model under the presence of a time-varying (sinusoidal) magnetic field by using the Glauber-type stochastic dynamics. We employ the Glauber transition rates to construct the set of dynamic mean-field equations. We investigate the time variation in average order parameters to find the phases in the system, and the thermal behavior of the dynamic order parameters to characterize the nature (continuous or discontinuous) of the dynamic phase transtions and to the dynamic phase transition temperature. The dynamic phase diagrams are presented in three different planes. The phase diagrams contain the ferromagnetic-5/2, the ferromagnetic-3/2, the ferromagnetic-1/2, the ferroquadrupolar, and disordered fundamental phases. They also include the nine coexisting or mixed phases composed of binary and ternary combinations of fundamental phases that strongly depend on the interaction parameters. The phase diagrams display the critical end point, double critical end point, triple point, quadruple point, and one, two, or three special points and the dynamic tricritical point that depends on the interaction parameters.     

Mean-field and anomalous behavior on a small-world network

We consider various equilibrium statistical mechanics models with combined short- and long-range interactions and identify the crossover to mean-field behavior, finding anomalous scaling in the width of the mean-field region, as well as in the mean-field amplitudes. We then show that this model enables us, in many cases, to determine the universal critical properties of systems on a small-world network. Finally, we consider nonequilibrium processes.     

Non-mean-field behavior of the contact process on scale-free networks

We present an analysis of the classical contact process on scale-free networks. A mean-field study, both for finite and infinite network sizes, yields an absorbing-state phase transition at a finite critical value of the control parameter, characterized by a set of exponents depending on the network structure. Since finite size effects are large and the infinite network limit cannot be reached in practice, a numerical study of the transition requires the application of finite size scaling theory. Contrary to other critical phenomena studied previously, the contact process in scale-free networks exhibits a nontrivial critical behavior that cannot be quantitatively accounted for by mean-field theory.     

非线性两模玻色子系统的Majorana表象

利用Majorana表象,从平均场模型和二次量子化模型两方面研究了非线性双模玻色子系统的动力学问题.得到了Majorana点在球面上的运动方程,分析了平均场模型和二次量子化模型之间的区别及其在Majorana点运动方程中的体现.研究了二次量子化模型中量子态在少体和多体情况下的动力学演化及其与平均场量子态的区别和联系.以平均场模型和二次量子化模型量子态之间的保真度和Majorana点之间的关联为手段,讨论了在不同玻色子间相互作用强度、不同玻色子数下量子态的演化及相应的自囚禁效应.