Ebook: Multicritical Phenomena: Proceedings of a NATO Advanced Study Institute on Multicritical Phenomena, held April 10–21, 1983, in Geilo, Norway

This book comprises the Proceedings of a NATO Advanced Study Institute on Mu1ticritica1 Phenomena held in Geilo, Norway, between 10-21 April 1983. This school was the seventh to be held in Gei10, on various aspects of phase transitions. In spite of its apparently restrictive title the school was planned as a forum for the discus­ sion of phase transitions and instabilities in systems, with competing interactions and competing order parameters. Thus, in addition to the canonical multicritical points, subjects were diverse as critical phenomena in random magnetic systems and routes to chaos were discussed. The subject matter of the school is naturally divided into a series of categories which to some extent, reflect the historical development of interest in competing phenomena at phase transitions. Multicritical points in equilibrium systems, defined phenomenolo­ gically as points of sudden change of behaviour on an otherwise smooth phase boundary, were the first topics of the school. The theo­ retical consensus which has emerged during the past decade, largely as a result of calculations with the renormalisation group, was reviewed in some detail. The results presented, however, apply only to pure systems (in which dirt and other manifestations of reality are irrelevant) in that small realm close to the phase transition knoYln as "asymtopia.

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Content:
Front Matter....Pages i-xii
Multicriticality: A Theoretical Introduction....Pages 1-5
Partial Differential Approximants for Multicritical Singularities: An Overview....Pages 7-11
Experimental Studies of Magnetic Tricritical Points: Problems and Progress....Pages 13-34
Experimental Studies of Bicritical Points in 3D Antiferromagnets....Pages 35-52
The Experimental Evidence for a Lifshitz Point in MnP....Pages 53-71
Nature of the Smectic-A-Smectic-C Transition Near a Nematic-Smectic-A — Smectic-C Multicritical Point....Pages 73-79
Dynamics Near Multicritical Points....Pages 81-112
Critical Dynamics of Sound....Pages 113-128
Multicritical Phenomena at Structural Phase Transitions....Pages 129-142
Fluctuation Driven Multicritical Points....Pages 143-153
A New Multicritical Point in a Seven Dimensional Parameter Space....Pages 155-164
Multicritical Points in Incommensurate Systems....Pages 165-170
Neutron Investigation of Modulated Structures....Pages 171-176
New Phenomena in Incommensurate Barium Sodium Niobate: Memory and Relaxation Effects....Pages 177-199
Critical Fluctuauions and Magnetic Ordering in Praseodymium Metal....Pages 201-206
Soft Mode and Central Peak as A Consequence of Competing Interactions....Pages 207-212
Criticality and Crossover in Stuctural Phase Transitions....Pages 213-218
Anomalous Vibrational Absorption Near the Antiferroelectric Phase Transition in Alkali Cyanides....Pages 219-220
A Plenitude of Commensurate Phases in Simple Models....Pages 221-225
Commensurability, Chaos, and the Devil?s Staircase....Pages 227-231
The Complete Devil?s Staircase and Universality of Mode Locking Structures in Discrete Mappings....Pages 233-235
Low Temperature Analysis of the ANNNI Model in a Field....Pages 237-263
Field Behavior of Spin Models with Competing Interactions....Pages 265-269
Phase Transitions in Crystals with Competing Interactions....Pages 271-275
Commensurate Melting and Domain Walls in Surface Phases....Pages 277-281
The Role of Domain Walls in the Critical Behaviour of the Three-dimensional P-State Asymmetric Clock Model....Pages 283-288
Interfacial Adsorption in Multi-State Models....Pages 289-291
Vortex Pinning in Thin Superfluid Films....Pages 293-300
Theory of Critical Phenomena in Random Systems....Pages 301-305
Disorder, Random Fields and Competing Interactions in Antiferromagnets....Pages 307-308
The Origins and Influences of the Spin-Glass Problem....Pages 309-327
Phase(?) Transitions in Systems with Spin Glass and Long-Range Order Regimes....Pages 329-332
Time Effects of the Field Cooled Magnetization of a Au(Fe) Spin Glass....Pages 333-362
Spin Glasses: Recent Theoretical Developments....Pages 363-372
Critical and Multicritical Points, Lines and Surfaces of Spin Glasses in the Presence of Magnetic Fields and Anisotropy....Pages 373-378
Some Renormalization Group Results on the Quenched Gauge Field Model of the Spin Glass....Pages 379-382
Frustration, Landau Levels and Superconducting Diamagnetism on Networks....Pages 383-397
Introduction to Chaos: Phenomenon, Structure of Spectra and Diffusion....Pages 399-403
Multicritical Behaviour of a Nonequilibrium System....Pages 405-408
Back Matter....Pages 409-421
....Pages 423-450