Lecture

Phase Transitions: Thermodynamics and Universality

Graph Chat

Chat with Graph Search

Ask any question about EPFL courses, lectures, exercises, research, news, etc. or try the example questions below.

DISCLAIMER: The Graph Chatbot is not programmed to provide explicit or categorical answers to your questions. Rather, it transforms your questions into API requests that are distributed across the various IT services officially administered by EPFL. Its purpose is solely to collect and recommend relevant references to content that you can explore to help you answer your questions.

In course

PHYS-316: Statistical physics II

Introduction à la théorie des transitions de phase ...

Description

This lecture covers the concept of phase transitions in thermodynamics, focusing on the competition between different phases controlled by temperature. It discusses the Ising model as an example of a system undergoing a ferromagnetic transition, emphasizing the importance of the thermodynamic limit and the existence of phase transitions. The lecture also explores the concept of universality, where different systems exhibit similar critical behavior near phase transitions. The instructor delves into the analytical aspects of phase transitions, highlighting the role of spin configurations and the emergence of disordered states. Various examples and theoretical frameworks are presented to explain the phenomena observed in phase transitions.

Instructors (2)

Matthieu Wyart

Teaching & PhD Past EPFL PhD Students Riccardo Ravasio, Mario Geiger, Wencheng Ji, Leonardo Petrini, Umberto Maria Tomasini, Alessandro Favero Courses Systèmes complexes PHYS-343 This courses show how known (entropy, phase transitions) and new (glasses, percolation, avalanche-type response) physical concepts can be used in various fields (including Computer science, neuroscience, social sciences).

Lenka Zdeborová

Lenka Zdeborová is a Professor of Physics and of Computer Science in École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne where she leads the Statistical Physics of Computation Laboratory. She received a PhD in physics from University Paris-Sud and from Charles University in Prague in 2008. She spent two years in the Los Alamos National Laboratory as the Director's Postdoctoral Fellow. Between 2010 and 2020 she was a researcher at CNRS working in the Institute of Theoretical Physics in CEA Saclay, France. In 2014, she was awarded the CNRS bronze medal, in 2016 Philippe Meyer prize in theoretical physics and an ERC Starting Grant, in 2018 the Irène Joliot-Curie prize, in 2021 the Gibbs lectureship of AMS. She is an editorial board member for Journal of Physics A, Physical Review E, Physical Review X, SIMODS, Machine Learning: Science and Technology, and Information and Inference. Lenka's expertise is in applications of concepts from statistical physics, such as advanced mean field methods, replica method and related message-passing algorithms, to problems in machine learning, signal processing, inference and optimization. She enjoys erasing the boundaries between theoretical physics, mathematics and computer science.

Official source

Related concepts (32)

Thermodynamics

Thermodynamics is a branch of physics that deals with heat, work, and temperature, and their relation to energy, entropy, and the physical properties of matter and radiation. The behavior of these quantities is governed by the four laws of thermodynamics which convey a quantitative description using measurable macroscopic physical quantities, but may be explained in terms of microscopic constituents by statistical mechanics.

Laws of thermodynamics

The laws of thermodynamics are a set of scientific laws which define a group of physical quantities, such as temperature, energy, and entropy, that characterize thermodynamic systems in thermodynamic equilibrium. The laws also use various parameters for thermodynamic processes, such as thermodynamic work and heat, and establish relationships between them. They state empirical facts that form a basis of precluding the possibility of certain phenomena, such as perpetual motion.

Ising model

The Ising model (ˈiːzɪŋ) (or Lenz-Ising model or Ising-Lenz model), named after the physicists Ernst Ising and Wilhelm Lenz, is a mathematical model of ferromagnetism in statistical mechanics. The model consists of discrete variables that represent magnetic dipole moments of atomic "spins" that can be in one of two states (+1 or −1). The spins are arranged in a graph, usually a lattice (where the local structure repeats periodically in all directions), allowing each spin to interact with its neighbors.

Chemical thermodynamics

Chemical thermodynamics is the study of the interrelation of heat and work with chemical reactions or with physical changes of state within the confines of the laws of thermodynamics. Chemical thermodynamics involves not only laboratory measurements of various thermodynamic properties, but also the application of mathematical methods to the study of chemical questions and the spontaneity of processes. The structure of chemical thermodynamics is based on the first two laws of thermodynamics.

Non-equilibrium thermodynamics

Non-equilibrium thermodynamics is a branch of thermodynamics that deals with physical systems that are not in thermodynamic equilibrium but can be described in terms of macroscopic quantities (non-equilibrium state variables) that represent an extrapolation of the variables used to specify the system in thermodynamic equilibrium. Non-equilibrium thermodynamics is concerned with transport processes and with the rates of chemical reactions.

Related lectures (64)

Thermodynamics in Cell Biology

Explores the role of thermodynamics in cell biology, focusing on the connection between thermodynamics and cellular processes.

Free-energy of solids: origins and consequences of the 1983 CECAM workshop

Explores the historical significance of the 1983 CECAM workshop on the free-energy of solids and its impact on developing free-energy methods for hard-core models.

Symmetry and Conservation in the Cell

Explores exceptions to thermodynamics, entropy, free energy, entropic springs, phase transitions, and polymer mixtures in cellular organization.

Phase Transitions: Understanding Thermodynamic Stability

Explores phase transitions in thermodynamics, focusing on stability criteria and real-world applications.

Cell Biology: Thermodynamics