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Mermin–Wagner Theorem
In quantum field theory and statistical mechanics, the Mermin–Wagner theorem (also known as Mermin–Wagner–Hohenberg theorem, Mermin–Wagner–Berezinskii theorem, or Coleman theorem) states that continuous symmetries cannot be spontaneously broken at finite temperature in systems with sufficiently short-range interactions in dimensions . Intuitively, this means that long-range fluctuations can be created with little energy cost and since they increase the entropy they are favored. This is because if such a spontaneous symmetry breaking occurred, then the corresponding Goldstone bosons, being massless, would have an infrared divergent correlation function. The absence of spontaneous symmetry breaking in dimensional systems was rigorously proved by David Mermin, Herbert Wagner (1966), and Pierre Hohenberg (1967) in statistical mechanics and by in quantum field theory. That the theorem does not apply to discrete symmetries can be seen in the two-dimensional Ising model. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quantum Field Theory
In theoretical physics, quantum field theory (QFT) is a theoretical framework that combines classical field theory, special relativity, and quantum mechanics. QFT is used in particle physics to construct physical models of subatomic particles and in condensed matter physics to construct models of quasiparticles. QFT treats particles as excited states (also called quanta) of their underlying quantum fields, which are more fundamental than the particles. The equation of motion of the particle is determined by minimization of the Lagrangian, a functional of fields associated with the particle. Interactions between particles are described by interaction terms in the Lagrangian involving their corresponding quantum fields. Each interaction can be visually represented by Feynman diagrams according to perturbation theory in quantum mechanics. History Quantum field theory emerged from the work of generations of theoretical physicists spanning much of the 20th century. Its deve ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Correlation Length
A correlation function is a function that gives the statistical correlation between random variables, contingent on the spatial or temporal distance between those variables. If one considers the correlation function between random variables representing the same quantity measured at two different points, then this is often referred to as an autocorrelation function, which is made up of autocorrelations. Correlation functions of different random variables are sometimes called cross-correlation functions to emphasize that different variables are being considered and because they are made up of cross-correlations. Correlation functions are a useful indicator of dependencies as a function of distance in time or space, and they can be used to assess the distance required between sample points for the values to be effectively uncorrelated. In addition, they can form the basis of rules for interpolating values at points for which there are no observations. Correlation functions used ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lev Landau
Lev Davidovich Landau (russian: Лев Дави́дович Ланда́у; 22 January 1908 – 1 April 1968) was a Soviet-Azerbaijani physicist of Jewish descent who made fundamental contributions to many areas of theoretical physics. His accomplishments include the independent co-discovery of the density matrix method in quantum mechanics (alongside John von Neumann), the quantum mechanical theory of diamagnetism, the theory of superfluidity, the theory of second-order phase transitions, the Ginzburg–Landau theory of superconductivity, the theory of Fermi liquids, the explanation of Landau damping in plasma physics, the Landau pole in quantum electrodynamics, the two-component theory of neutrinos, and Landau's equations for ''S'' matrix singularities. He received the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physics for his development of a mathematical theory of superfluidity that accounts for the properties of liquid helium II at a temperature below (). Life Early years Landa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rudolf Peierls
Sir Rudolf Ernst Peierls, (; ; 5 June 1907 – 19 September 1995) was a German-born British physicist who played a major role in Tube Alloys, Britain's nuclear weapon programme, as well as the subsequent Manhattan Project, the combined Allied nuclear bomb programme. His obituary in ''Physics Today'' described him as "a major player in the drama of the eruption of nuclear physics into world affairs". Peierls studied physics at the University of Berlin, at the University of Munich under Arnold Sommerfeld, the University of Leipzig under Werner Heisenberg, and ETH Zurich under Wolfgang Pauli. After receiving his DPhil from Leipzig in 1929, he became an assistant to Pauli in Zurich. In 1932, he was awarded a Rockefeller Fellowship, which he used to study in Rome under Enrico Fermi, and then at the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge under Ralph H. Fowler. Because of his Jewish background, he elected to not return home after Adolf Hitler's rise to power in 19 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Slater Determinant
In quantum mechanics, a Slater determinant is an expression that describes the wave function of a multi-fermionic system. It satisfies anti-symmetry requirements, and consequently the Pauli principle, by changing sign upon exchange of two electrons (or other fermions).Molecular Quantum Mechanics Parts I and II: An Introduction to QUANTUM CHEMISTRY (Volume 1), P. W. Atkins, Oxford University Press, 1977, . Only a small subset of all possible fermionic wave functions can be written as a single Slater determinant, but those form an important and useful subset because of their simplicity. The Slater determinant arises from the consideration of a wave function for a collection of electrons, each with a wave function known as the spin-orbital \chi(\mathbf), where \mathbf denotes the position and spin of a single electron. A Slater determinant containing two electrons with the same spin orbital would correspond to a wave function that is zero everywhere. The Slater determinant is nam ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Felix Bloch
Felix Bloch (23 October 1905 – 10 September 1983) was a Swiss-American physicist and Nobel physics laureate who worked mainly in the U.S. He and Edward Mills Purcell were awarded the 1952 Nobel Prize for Physics for "their development of new ways and methods for nuclear magnetic precision measurements."Sohlman, M (Ed.) ''Nobel Foundation directory 2003.'' Vastervik, Sweden: AB CO Ekblad; 2003. In 1954–1955, he served for one year as the first Director-General of CERN. Felix Bloch made fundamental theoretical contributions to the understanding of ferromagnetism and electron behavior in crystal lattices. He is also considered one of the developers of nuclear magnetic resonance. Biography Early life, education, and family Bloch was born in Zürich, Switzerland to Jewish parents Gustav and Agnes Bloch. Gustav Bloch, his father, was financially unable to attend University and worked as a wholesale grain dealer in Zürich. Gustav moved to Zürich in 1890 to become a Swiss cit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ginzburg Criterion
Mean field theory gives sensible results as long as one is able to neglect fluctuations in the system under consideration. The Ginzburg criterion tells quantitatively when mean field theory is valid. It also gives the idea of an upper critical dimension, a dimensionality of the system above which mean field theory gives proper results, and the critical exponents predicted by mean field theory match exactly with those obtained by numerical methods. Example: Ising model If \phi is the order parameter of the system, then mean field theory requires that the fluctuations in the order parameter are much smaller than the actual value of the order parameter near the critical point. Quantitatively, this means that : \displaystyle\mathcal \langle(\delta \phi)^2\rangle \quad\quad \langle\phi\rangle^2 Using this in the Landau theory, which is identical to the mean field theory for the Ising model, the value of the upper critical dimension comes out to be 4. If the dimension of the space is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Magnetization
In classical electromagnetism, magnetization is the vector field that expresses the density of permanent or induced magnetic dipole moments in a magnetic material. Movement within this field is described by direction and is either Axial or Diametric. The origin of the magnetic moments responsible for magnetization can be either microscopic electric currents resulting from the motion of electrons in atoms, or the spin of the electrons or the nuclei. Net magnetization results from the response of a material to an external magnetic field. Paramagnetic materials have a weak induced magnetization in a magnetic field, which disappears when the magnetic field is removed. Ferromagnetic and ferrimagnetic materials have strong magnetization in a magnetic field, and can be ''magnetized'' to have magnetization in the absence of an external field, becoming a permanent magnet. Magnetization is not necessarily uniform within a material, but may vary between different points. Magneti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spin Wave
A spin wave is a propagating disturbance in the ordering of a magnetic material. These low-lying collective excitations occur in magnetic lattices with continuous symmetry. From the equivalent quasiparticle point of view, spin waves are known as magnons, which are bosonic modes of the spin lattice that correspond roughly to the phonon excitations of the nuclear lattice. As temperature is increased, the thermal excitation of spin waves reduces a ferromagnet's spontaneous magnetization. The energies of spin waves are typically only in keeping with typical Curie points at room temperature and below. Theory The simplest way of understanding spin waves is to consider the Hamiltonian \mathcal for the Heisenberg ferromagnet: :\mathcal = -\frac J \sum_ \mathbf_i \cdot \mathbf_j - g \mu_ \sum_i \mathbf \cdot \mathbf_i where is the exchange energy, the operators represent the spins at Bravais lattice points, is the Landé -factor, is the Bohr magneton and is the internal fi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Continuum Limit
In mathematical physics and mathematics, the continuum limit or scaling limit of a lattice model refers to its behaviour in the limit as the lattice spacing goes to zero. It is often useful to use lattice models to approximate real-world processes, such as Brownian motion. Indeed, according to Donsker's theorem, the discrete random walk would, in the scaling limit, approach the true Brownian motion. Terminology The term ''continuum limit'' mostly finds use in the physical sciences, often in reference to models of aspects of quantum physics, while the term ''scaling limit'' is more common in mathematical use. Application in quantum field theory A lattice model that approximates a continuum quantum field theory In theoretical physics, quantum field theory (QFT) is a theoretical framework that combines classical field theory, special relativity, and quantum mechanics. QFT is used in particle physics to construct physical models of subatomic particles and ... in the limit as t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Low Temperature
In physics, cryogenics is the production and behaviour of materials at very low temperatures. The 13th IIR International Congress of Refrigeration (held in Washington DC in 1971) endorsed a universal definition of “cryogenics” and “cryogenic” by accepting a threshold of 120 K (or –153 °C) to distinguish these terms from the conventional refrigeration. This is a logical dividing line, since the normal boiling points of the so-called permanent gases (such as helium, hydrogen, neon, nitrogen, oxygen, and normal air) lie below 120K while the Freon refrigerants, hydrocarbons, and other common refrigerants have boiling points above 120K. The U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology considers the field of cryogenics as that involving temperatures below -153 Celsius (120K; -243.4 Fahrenheit) Discovery of superconducting materials with critical temperatures significantly above the boiling point of nitrogen has provided new interest in reliable, low cost meth ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Heisenberg Model (quantum)
The quantum Heisenberg model, developed by Werner Heisenberg, is a statistical mechanical model used in the study of critical points and phase transitions of magnetic systems, in which the spins of the magnetic systems are treated quantum mechanically. It is related to the prototypical Ising model, where at each site of a lattice, a spin \sigma_i \in \ represents a microscopic magnetic dipole to which the magnetic moment is either up or down. Except the coupling between magnetic dipole moments, there is also a multipolar version of Heisenberg model called the multipolar exchange interaction. Overview For quantum mechanical reasons (see exchange interaction or ), the dominant coupling between two dipoles may cause nearest-neighbors to have lowest energy when they are ''aligned''. Under this assumption (so that magnetic interactions only occur between adjacent dipoles) and on a 1-dimensional periodic lattice, the Hamiltonian can be written in the form :\hat H = -J \sum_^ \si ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
