7,689 research outputs found
Systems thinking: critical thinking skills for the 1990s and beyond
This pdf article discusses the need for teaching systems thinking and critical thinking skills. Systems thinking and systems dynamics are important for developing effective strategies to close the gap between the interdependent nature of our problems and our ability to understand them. This article calls for a clearer view of the nature of systems thinking and the education system into which it must be transferred. Educational levels: Graduate or professional
Boundary critical behaviour at -axial Lifshitz points: the special transition for the case of a surface plane parallel to the modulation axes
The critical behaviour of -dimensional semi-infinite systems with
-component order parameter is studied at an -axial bulk
Lifshitz point whose wave-vector instability is isotropic in an -dimensional
subspace of . Field-theoretic renormalization group methods are
utilised to examine the special surface transition in the case where the
potential modulation axes, with , are parallel to the surface.
The resulting scaling laws for the surface critical indices are given. The
surface critical exponent , the surface crossover exponent
and related ones are determined to first order in
\epsilon=4+\case{m}{2}-d. Unlike the bulk critical exponents and the surface
critical exponents of the ordinary transition, is -dependent already
at first order in . The \Or(\epsilon) term of is
found to vanish, which implies that the difference of and
the bulk exponent is of order .Comment: 21 pages, one figure included as eps file, uses IOP style file
Boundary critical behavior at m-axial Lifshitz points for a boundary plane parallel to the modulation axes
The critical behavior of semi-infinite -dimensional systems with
-component order parameter and short-range interactions is
investigated at an -axial bulk Lifshitz point whose wave-vector instability
is isotropic in an -dimensional subspace of . The associated
modulation axes are presumed to be parallel to the surface, where . An appropriate semi-infinite model representing the
corresponding universality classes of surface critical behavior is introduced.
It is shown that the usual O(n) symmetric boundary term
of the Hamiltonian must be supplemented by one of the form involving a
dimensionless (renormalized) coupling constant . The implied boundary
conditions are given, and the general form of the field-theoretic
renormalization of the model below the upper critical dimension
is clarified. Fixed points describing the ordinary, special,
and extraordinary transitions are identified and shown to be located at a
nontrivial value if . The surface
critical exponents of the ordinary transition are determined to second order in
. Extrapolations of these expansions yield values of these
exponents for in good agreement with recent Monte Carlo results for the
case of a uniaxial () Lifshitz point. The scaling dimension of the surface
energy density is shown to be given exactly by , where
is the anisotropy exponent.Comment: revtex4, 31 pages with eps-files for figures, uses texdraw to
generate some graphs; to appear in PRB; v2: some references and additional
remarks added, labeling in figure 1 and some typos correcte
Crossover from Attractive to Repulsive Casimir Forces and Vice Versa
Systems described by an O(n) symmetrical Hamiltonian are considered
in a -dimensional film geometry at their bulk critical points. The critical
Casimir forces between the film's boundary planes , are
investigated as functions of film thickness for generic symmetry-preserving
boundary conditions . The
-dependent part of the reduced excess free energy per cross-sectional area
takes the scaling form when , where are scaling
fields associated with the variables , and is a surface
crossover exponent. Explicit two-loop renormalization group results for the
function at dimensions are
presented. These show that (i) the Casimir force can have either sign,
depending on and , and (ii) for appropriate
choices of the enhancements , crossovers from attraction to
repulsion and vice versa occur as increases.Comment: 4 RevTeX pages, 2 eps figures; minor misprints corrected and 3
references adde
Surface critical behavior of driven diffusive systems with open boundaries
Using field theoretic renormalization group methods we study the critical
behavior of a driven diffusive system near a boundary perpendicular to the
driving force. The boundary acts as a particle reservoir which is necessary to
maintain the critical particle density in the bulk. The scaling behavior of
correlation and response functions is governed by a new exponent eta_1 which is
related to the anomalous scaling dimension of the chemical potential of the
boundary. The new exponent and a universal amplitude ratio for the density
profile are calculated at first order in epsilon = 5-d. Some of our results are
checked by computer simulations.Comment: 10 pages ReVTeX, 6 figures include
Thermodynamic Casimir effects involving interacting field theories with zero modes
Systems with an O(n) symmetrical Hamiltonian are considered in a
-dimensional slab geometry of macroscopic lateral extension and finite
thickness that undergo a continuous bulk phase transition in the limit
. The effective forces induced by thermal fluctuations at and above
the bulk critical temperature (thermodynamic Casimir effect) are
investigated below the upper critical dimension by means of
field-theoretic renormalization group methods for the case of periodic and
special-special boundary conditions, where the latter correspond to the
critical enhancement of the surface interactions on both boundary planes. As
shown previously [\textit{Europhys. Lett.} \textbf{75}, 241 (2006)], the zero
modes that are present in Landau theory at make conventional
RG-improved perturbation theory in dimensions ill-defined. The
revised expansion introduced there is utilized to compute the scaling functions
of the excess free energy and the Casimir force for temperatures
T\geqT_{c,\infty} as functions of , where
is the bulk correlation length. Scaling functions of the
-dependent residual free energy per area are obtained whose
limits are in conformity with previous results for the Casimir amplitudes
to and display a more reasonable
small- behavior inasmuch as they approach the critical value
monotonically as .Comment: 23 pages, 10 figure
On the surface critical behaviour in Ising strips: density-matrix renormalization-group study
Using the density-matrix renormalization-group method we study the surface
critical behaviour of the magnetization in Ising strips in the subcritical
region. Our results support the prediction that the surface magnetization in
the two phases along the pseudo-coexistence curve also behaves as for the
ordinary transition below the wetting temperature for the finite value of the
surface field.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figure
Large-n expansion for m-axial Lifshitz points
The large-n expansion is developed for the study of critical behaviour of
d-dimensional systems at m-axial Lifshitz points with an arbitrary number m of
modulation axes. The leading non-trivial contributions of O(1/n) are derived
for the two independent correlation exponents \eta_{L2} and \eta_{L4}, and the
related anisotropy index \theta. The series coefficients of these 1/n
corrections are given for general values of m and d with 0<m<d and
2+m/2<d<4+m/2 in the form of integrals. For special values of m and d such as
(m,d)=(1,4), they can be computed analytically, but in general their evaluation
requires numerical means. The 1/n corrections are shown to reduce in the
appropriate limits to those of known large-n expansions for the case of
d-dimensional isotropic Lifshitz points and critical points, respectively, and
to be in conformity with available dimensionality expansions about the upper
and lower critical dimensions. Numerical results for the 1/n coefficients of
\eta_{L2}, \eta_{L4} and \theta are presented for the physically interesting
case of a uniaxial Lifshitz point in three dimensions, as well as for some
other choices of m and d. A universal coefficient associated with the
energy-density pair correlation function is calculated to leading order in 1/n
for general values of m and d.Comment: 28 pages, 3 figures. Submitted to: J. Phys. C: Solid State Phys.,
special issue dedicated to Lothar Schaefer on the occasion of his 60th
birthday. V2: References added along with corresponding modifications in the
text, corrected figure 3, corrected typo
Surface Critical Behavior of Binary Alloys and Antiferromagnets: Dependence of the Universality Class on Surface Orientation
The surface critical behavior of semi-infinite
(a) binary alloys with a continuous order-disorder transition and
(b) Ising antiferromagnets in the presence of a magnetic field is considered.
In contrast to ferromagnets, the surface universality class of these systems
depends on the orientation of the surface with respect to the crystal axes.
There is ordinary and extraordinary surface critical behavior for orientations
that preserve and break the two-sublattice symmetry, respectively. This is
confirmed by transfer-matrix calculations for the two-dimensional
antiferromagnet and other evidence.Comment: Final version that appeared in PRL, some minor stylistic changes and
one corrected formula; 4 pp., twocolumn, REVTeX, 3 eps fig
Monte Carlo simulation results for critical Casimir forces
The confinement of critical fluctuations in soft media induces critical
Casimir forces acting on the confining surfaces. The temperature and geometry
dependences of such forces are characterized by universal scaling functions. A
novel approach is presented to determine them for films via Monte Carlo
simulations of lattice models. The method is based on an integration scheme of
free energy differences. Our results for the Ising and the XY universality
class compare favourably with corresponding experimental results for wetting
layers of classical binary liquid mixtures and of 4He, respectively.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figure
- …