The field of phase transitions and critical phenomena continues to be active in research, producing a steady stream of interesting and fruitful results. It has moved into a central place in condensed matter studies. Statistical physics, and more specifically, the theory of transitions between states of matter, more or less defines what we know about 'everyday' matter and its transformations. The major aim of this serial is to provide review articles that can serve as standard references for research workers in the field, and for graduate students and others wishing to obtain reliable information on important recent developments.

Phase Transitions and Critical Phenomena

Deposits of clastic carbonate-dominated (calciclastic) sedimentary slope systems in the rock record have been identified mostly as linearly-consistent carbonate apron deposits, even though most ancient clastic carbonate slope deposits fit the submarine fan systems better. Calciclastic submarine fans are consequently rarely described and are poorly understood. Subsequently, very little is known especially in mud-dominated calciclastic submarine fan systems. Presented in this study are a sedimentological core and petrographic characterisation of samples from eleven boreholes from the Lower Carboniferous of Bowland Basin (Northwest England) that reveals a >250 m thick calciturbidite complex deposited in a calciclastic submarine fan setting. Seven facies are recognised from core and thin section characterisation and are grouped into three carbonate turbidite sequences. They include: 1) Calciturbidites, comprising mostly of highto low-density, wavy-laminated bioclast-rich facies; 2) low-density densite mudstones which are characterised by planar laminated and unlaminated muddominated facies; and 3) Calcidebrites which are muddy or hyper-concentrated debrisflow deposits occurring as poorly-sorted, chaotic, mud-supported floatstones. These

Phd by thesis

Spintronics, or spin electronics, involves the study of active control and manipulation of spin degrees of freedom in solid-state systems. This article reviews the current status of this subject, including both recent advances and well-established results. The primary focus is on the basic physical principles underlying the generation of carrier spin polarization, spin dynamics, and spin-polarized transport in semiconductors and metals. Spin transport differs from charge transport in that spin is a nonconserved quantity in solids due to spin-orbit and hyperfine coupling. The authors discuss in detail spin decoherence mechanisms in metals and semiconductors. Various theories of spin injection and spin-polarized transport are applied to hybrid structures relevant to spin-based devices and fundamental studies of materials properties. Experimental work is reviewed with the emphasis on projected applications, in which external electric and magnetic fields and illumination by light will be used to control spin and charge dynamics to create new functionalities not feasible or ineffective with conventional electronics.

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Spintronics: Fundamentals and applications

This paper reviews recent experimental and theoretical progress concerning many-body phenomena in dilute, ultracold gases. It focuses on effects beyond standard weak-coupling descriptions, such as the Mott-Hubbard transition in optical lattices, strongly interacting gases in one and two dimensions, or lowest-Landau-level physics in quasi-two-dimensional gases in fast rotation. Strong correlations in fermionic gases are discussed in optical lattices or near-Feshbach resonances in the BCS-BEC crossover.

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Many-Body Physics with Ultracold Gases

An introductory review of the central ideas in the modern theory of dynamic critical phenomena is followed by a more detailed account of recent developments in the field. The concepts of the conventional theory, mode-coupling, scaling, universality, and the renormalization group are introduced and are illustrated in the context of a simple example---the phase separation of a symmetric binary fluid. The renormalization group is then developed in some detail, and applied to a variety of systems. The main dynamic universality classes are identified and characterized. It is found that the mode-coupling and renormalization group theories successfully explain available experimental data at the critical point of pure fluids, and binary mixtures, and at many magnetic phase transitions, but that a number of discrepancies exist with data at the superfluid transition of $^{4}\mathrm{He}$.

Theory of Dynamic Critical Phenomena

The recent generalized Debye-Hueckel (GDH) theory is applied to the calculation of the charge-charge correlation function G_{ZZ}(r). The resulting expression satisfies both (i) the charge neutrality condition and (ii) the Stillinger-Lovett second-moment condition for all T and rho_N, the overall ion density, and (iii) exhibits charge oscillations for densities above a "Kirkwood line" in the (rho_N,T) plane. This corrects the normally assumed DH correlations, and, when combined with the GDH analysis of the density correlations, leaves the GDH theory as the only complete description of ionic correlation functions, as judged by (i)-(iii), (iv) exact low-density (rho_N,T) variation, and (v) reasonable behavior near criticality.

Charge Oscillations in Debye-Hueckel Theory

The vapor-liquid critical behavior of intrinsically asymmetric fluids is studied in finite systems of linear dimensions L focusing on periodic boundary conditions, as appropriate for simulations. The recently propounded ``complete'' thermodynamic $(\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{L}\ensuremath{\infty})$ scaling theory incorporating pressure mixing in the scaling fields as well as corrections to scaling [Phys. Rev. E 67, 061506 (2003)] is extended to finite $L,$ initially in a grand canonical representation. The theory allows for a Yang-Yang anomaly in which, when $\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{L}\ensuremath{\infty},$ the second temperature derivative ${(d}^{2}{\ensuremath{\mu}}_{\ensuremath{\sigma}}{/dT}^{2})$ of the chemical potential along the phase boundary ${\ensuremath{\mu}}_{\ensuremath{\sigma}}(T)$ diverges when $\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{T}{T}_{\mathrm{c}}\ensuremath{-}.$ The finite-size behavior of various special critical loci in the temperature-density or $(T,\ensuremath{\rho})$ plane, in particular, the k-inflection susceptibility loci and the Q-maximal loci --- derived from ${Q}_{L}(T,〈\ensuremath{\rho}{〉}_{L})\ensuremath{\equiv}〈{m}^{2}{〉}_{L}^{2}/〈{m}^{4}{〉}_{L}$ where $m\ensuremath{\equiv}\ensuremath{\rho}\ensuremath{-}〈\ensuremath{\rho}{〉}_{L}$ --- is carefully elucidated and shown to be of value in estimating ${T}_{\mathrm{c}}$ and ${\ensuremath{\rho}}_{\mathrm{c}}.$ Concrete illustrations are presented for the hard-core square-well fluid and for the restricted primitive model electrolyte including an estimate of the correlation exponent $\ensuremath{\nu}$ that confirms Ising-type character. The treatment is extended to the canonical representation where further complications appear.

Asymmetric fluid criticality. II. Finite-size scaling for simulations.

Series expansions for spin-spin correlations of simple-cubic, bcc, and square lattice Ising ferromagnets for general field and temperature have been analyzed. To within the attainable precision (of \ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{} 1 to \ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{} 5%) the exponents ${\ensuremath{\nu}}^{\ensuremath{'}}$ and ${\ensuremath{\nu}}^{c}$ are consistent with scaling predictions. Deviations of the scattering from Ornstein-Zernike forms are significantly larger quantitatively than above ${T}_{c}$; the second-moment correlation lengths verify $\frac{{{\ensuremath{\xi}}_{1}}^{+}}{{{\ensuremath{\xi}}_{1}}^{\ensuremath{-}}(T)}=1.96\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.03$ as $T\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{{T}_{c}}^{\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}}$.

Critical Scattering in a Field and Below T c

Domain-wall interactions and spatially modulated phases.

Partial-differential approximants are used to study the critical behavior of the susceptibility, \ensuremath{\chi}(x,y), of the Klauder and double-Gaussian scalar spin, or O(1) models on a square lattice using two-variable series to order ${x}^{21}$ where x\ensuremath{\propto}J/${k}_{B}$T while y serves to interpolate analytically from the Gaussian or free-field model at y=0 to the standard spin-(1/2) Ising model at y=1. The pure Ising critical point at y=1 appears to be the only non-Gaussian multisingularity in the range 0ly\ensuremath{\le}1. It is concluded that the exponent \ensuremath{\theta} characterizing the leading irrelevant corrections to scaling lies in the range \ensuremath{\theta}=1.35\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.25. This supports the validity of Nienhuis's conjecture \ensuremath{\theta}=(4/3) but it is argued that, contrary to normal expectations, this (rational) value entails only logarithmic corrections to pure Ising critical behavior. The existence of strong crossover effects for 0.1\ensuremath{\lesssim}y\ensuremath{\lesssim}0.6 and the appearance of an effective exponent, ${\ensuremath{\gamma}}_{\mathrm{eff}\mathrm{\ensuremath{\simeq}}1.9}$ to 2.0, is discussed and related to work on the \ensuremath{\lambda}${\mathrm{cphi}}^{4}$ model.

Michael E. Fisher

Papers

Charge Oscillations in Debye-Hueckel Theory

Asymmetric fluid criticality. II. Finite-size scaling for simulations.

Critical Scattering in a Field and Below T c

Domain-wall interactions and spatially modulated phases.

Two-dimensional Ising-like systems: Corrections to scaling in the Klauder and double-Gaussian models.