Statistical Mechanics of Phase Transition

Abstract

Based on a series of lectures given by the author at Oxford. "Recent developments have led to a good understanding of universality: why phase transitions in systems as diverse as magnets, fluids, liquid crystals, and superconductors can be brought under the same theoretical umbrella and well described by simple models. This book describes the physics underlying universality and then lays out the theoretical approaches now available for studying phase transitions."--Back cover. Introduction -- Statistical mechanics and thermodynamics -- Models -- Mean-field theories -- The transfer matrix -- Series expansions -- Monte Carlo simulations -- The renormalization group -- Implementations of the renormalization group.