SylabUZ
| Course name | Physics of phase transitions |
| Course ID | 13.2-WF-FizP-PPT-S17 |
| Faculty | Faculty of Physics and Astronomy |
| Field of study | Physics |
| Education profile | academic |
| Level of studies | First-cycle Erasmus programme |
| Beginning semester | winter term 2017/2018 |
| Semester | 5 |
| ECTS credits to win | 6 |
| Course type | obligatory |
| Teaching language | english |
| Author of syllabus |
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| The class form | Hours per semester (full-time) | Hours per week (full-time) | Hours per semester (part-time) | Hours per week (part-time) | Form of assignment |
| Lecture | 30 | 2 | - | - | Exam |
| Class | 30 | 2 | - | - | Credit with grade |
The aim of the course is to provide students knowledge of the issues, concepts, and methods relevant to phase transitions and critical phenomena, to acquaint them with the phenomenological and microscopic descriptions of critical phenomena, present and discuss various experimental results with regard to phase transitions
Passed lectures: "Fundamentals of Physics I, II”
LECTURE:
- Elements of thermodynamics: the four laws of thermodynamics, thermodynamic potentials, the equation of state for an ideal gas and for real gas (the van der Waals equation)
- Phases and phase transitions: the concept of thermodynamic phase, a typical phase diagram, a classification of phase transitions, the thermodynamic description of phase transitions, the role of the correlation
- Ising model: a microscopic approach to the modelling of phase transitions, the canonical ensemble of statistical mechanics, exact and approximate solutions of the Ising model
- Mean field theory: phenomenological Landau theory, symmetry, an order parameter
- Scaling: dimensional analysis and dimensionless parameters, the nature of the critical singularities, relationships between the critical indices, the scaling hypothesis
- Renormalization group: determination of the critical indices, the critical temperature assignment, the parameter space of the Hamiltonian, the fixed points of the renormalization group transformation, the block-spin renormalization-group transformation
- Phase transitions in quantum systems: symmetry of the wave function in quantum mechanics, statistical description of quantum systems, a Bose–Einstein condensate, superfluidity, superconductivity
- Universality: Universality hypothesis and its consequences, universality classes
- Finite-size scaling: the evaluation of critical indexes and critical temperature based on a finite-size scaling analysis, the Binder cumulants
- Critical phenomena in confined liquid systems: binary liquid mixtures, simple fluids, the role of confinement in liquids, capillary condensation, critical adsorption, wetting
- Percolations: the phase transition in random structures, percolation clusters, the percolation threshold for various lattices, the order parameter for percolation
CLASS:
- Thermodynamics: thermodynamic processes, the Carnot cycle, entropy, specific heat
- Mean Field Theory, the Bragg-Williams approximation
- Ising Model: the exact solution for the one-dimensional Ising model, the Bethe lattice, the two-dimensional Ising model
- The Landau theory of phase transitions
- Critical phenomena: the critical indices, the critical temperature
- Percolation
Classes are in the form of lectures when the student is encouraged to ask questions. On the exercises, students analyze and solve problems with a teacher.
| Outcome description | Outcome symbols | Methods of verification | The class form |
The exam is conducted in writing. Student receives four issues to consider requiring the knowledge of the issues and ability to combine different phenomena. For each task, one can get from 0 to 5 points. Received a positive rating requires at least 8 points (a sufficient for 8-10.5 points, a plus sufficient for 11-13.5 points, a good 14-16, a plus good 16.5-18.5 points, a very good 19-20 points).
The final grade will be based on the following factors:
- activity at classes (40%),
- the result of the final test (60%) that will be based on problems similar, but not identical, to the problems studied during the classes.
The classes must be completed prior to the exam.
The lecture grade will comprise 60% of the final grade while the class grade will comprise 40% of the final grade.
[1] M. Gitterman, V. Halpern, Phase transitions. A Brief Account with Modern Applications, World
Scientific 2004.
[2] R. Hołyst, A. Poniewierski, A. Ciach, Termodynamika dla chemików, fizyków i inżynierów, Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Kardynała Stefana Wyszyńskiego, Warszawa 2005.
[3] K. Huang, Podstawy fizyki statystycznej, Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN, Warszawa 2006.
[4] M. Plischke, B. Bergersen, Equilibrium Phase Transitions, World Scientific 2005.
[1] R. Gonczarek, Teoria przejść fazowych. Wybrane zagadnienia, Oficyna Wydawnicza Politechniki Wrocławskiej 2004.
[2] K. Huang, Mechanika statystyczna, PWN, Warszawa 1978.
[3] J. Klamut, K. Durczewski, J. Sznajd, Wstęp do fizyki przejść fazowych, Ossolineum, Wrocław 1979.
Modified by dr hab. Maria Przybylska, prof. UZ (last modification: 09-07-2018 22:48)
