Continuum Thermodynamics and Phase-Field Models

Thermodynamics of bcc metals in phase-field-crystal models.

We examine the influence of different forms of the free-energy functionals used in the phase-field-crystal (PFC) model, and compare them with the second-order density-functional theory (DFT) of freezing, by using bcc iron as an example case. We show that there are large differences between the PFC and the DFT and it is difficult to obtain reasonable parameters for existing PFC models directly f...

Continuum Reduction and the Thermodynamics of QCD

It is noted that if large Nc continuum reduction applies to an observable, then that observable is independent of temperature for all temperatures below some critical value. This fact, plus the fact that mesons and glueballs are weakly interacting at large Nc is used as the basis for a derivation of large Nc continuum reduction for the chiral condensate. The structure of this derivation is quit...

Phase-Field Models

Phase-field models have become popular in recent years to describe a host of free-boundary problems in various areas of research. The key point of the phase-field approach is that surfaces and interfaces are implicitly described by continuous scalar fields that take constant values in the bulk phases and vary continuously but steeply across a diffuse front. In the present contribution, a distin...

An axiomatic foundation for continuum thermodynamics

Dynamic mean-field models from a nonequilibrium thermodynamics perspective.

Complicated dynamic models are often approximated by introducing mean-field approximations and closures. The focus here is on examining such mean-field models using nonequilibrium thermodynamics. Two illustrative examples are studied in terms of the double-generator general equation for the nonequilibrium reversible-irreversible coupling (GENERIC) framework. First, it is shown that a model for ...