It is well known that the Landau theory of continuous phase transitions is a milestone in the process of the development of phase transition theories. Though it does not tally with the nature of phase transitions in the critical regions, the Landau theory as a phenomenological one has been very successful in many kinds of phase transitions such as the ferroelectric phase transitions, i.e. the v...

Structural phase transitions can be studied by a variety of techniques; macroscopic fields, X-ray, light and neutron diffraction, and resonance methods. The information which can be obtained by these different techniques about the order parameter and susceptibility at structural phase transitions is described and compared. Landau theory coupled with the 'sot~ mode' concept provides a simple pic...

This paper presents an introduction to phase transitions and critical phenomena on the one hand, and nonequilibrium patterns on the other, using the Ginzburg-Landau theory as a unified language. In the first part, meanfield theory is presented, for both statics and dynamics, and its validity tested self-consistently. As is well known, the mean-field approximation breaks down below four spatial ...

We present a Landau-Ginzburg theory for a fractional quantized Hall nematic state and the transition to it from an isotropic fractional quantum Hall state. This justifies Lifshitz-Chern-Simons theory – which is shown to be its dual – on a more microscopic basis and enables us to compute a ground state wave function in the symmetry-broken phase. In such a state of matter, the Hall resistance rem...

We analyze the linear response of a half filled Landau level to long wavelength and low frequency driving forces, using Fermi liquid theory for composite fermions. This response is determined by the composite fermions quasi–particle effective mass, m, and quasi–particle Landau interaction function f(θ − θ). Analyzing infra–red divergences of perturbation theory, we get an exact expression for m...

Green’s functions are gauge-dependent quantities. Thus, the manifestation of confinement in these correlation functions also depends on the gauge. Here we use lattice gauge theory to study the gluon and the ghost propagators in a gauge (the so-called λ -gauge) interpolating between the Landau and the Coulomb gauge. Results are compared to the usual minimal Landau gauge.

Non-adiabatic decay rates for a radio-frequency dressed magnetic trap are calculated using Fermi’s Golden Rule: that is, we examine the probability for a single atom to make transitions out of the dressed trap and into a continuum in the adiabatic limit, where perturbation theory can be applied. This approach can be compared to the semi-classical Landau-Zener theory of a resonant dressed atom t...