Simple Models of Magnetism (Paperback)

<內容簡介>

*Self contained summary of advances in statistical mechanics in the last fifty years
*Detailed historical chronologies of the development of all topics treated
*Many exactly solved nontrivial problems done in detail
*Many open problems and conjectures presented
*Extensive use of computer results to obtain analytic insight

Statistical Mechanics is the study of systems where the number of interacting particles becomes infinite. In the last fifty years tremendous advances have been made which have required the invention of entirely new fields of mathematics such as quantum groups and affine Lie algebras. They have engendered remarkable discoveries concerning non-linear differential equations and algebraic geometry, and have produced profound insights in both condensed matter physics and quantum field theory. Unfortunately, none of these advances are taught in graduate courses in statistical mechanics.

This book is an attempt to correct this problem. It begins with theorems on the existence (and lack) of order for crystals and magnets and with the theory of critical phenomena, and continues by presenting the methods and results of fifty years of analytic and computer computations of phase transitions. It concludes with an extensive presentation of four of the most important of exactly solved problems: the Ising, 8 vertex, hard hexagon and chiral Potts models.

Table Of Contents

1: Basic Principles

2: Reductionism, Phenomena and Models

3: Stability, Existence and Uniqueness

4: Theorems on Order

5: Critical Phenomena and Scaling Theory

6: Mayer Virial Expansions and Groenevelt's Theorems

7: Ree-Hoover Virial Expansion and Hard Spheres

8: High Density Expansions

9: High Temperature Expansions for Magnets at H=0

10: The Ising Model in Two Dimensions; Summary of Results

11: The Pfaffian Solution of the Ising Model

12: Ising Model Spontaneous Magnetization, Form Factors and Susceptibility

13: The Star-Triangle (Yang-Baxter) Equation

14: The Eight Vertex and XYZ models

15: The RSOS and the Chiral Potts models

16: Conclusion