From Phase Transitions To Chaos: Topics In Modern Statistical Physics

This volume comprises about 40 research papers and essays covering a wide range of subjects in the forefront of contemporary statistical physics. The contributors are scientists and specialists in several different fields. The book is dedicated to Peter Szepfalusy on the occasion of his 60th birthday. Emphasis is placed on his two main areas of research, namely phase transitions and chaotic dynamical systems. They share common aspects like the applicability of the probabilistic approach or scaling behaviour and universality. Several papers deal with equilibrium phase transitions, critical dynamics, and pattern formation. Also represented are disordered systems, random field systems, growth processes, and neural networks. Statistical properties of interacting electron gases, such as the Kondo lattice, the Wigner crystal, and the Hubbard model, are treated. In the field of chaos, Hamiltonian transport and resonances, strange attractors, multifractal characteristics of chaos, and the effect of weak perturbations are discussed. A separate section is devoted to selected mathematical aspects of dynamical systems like the foundation of statistical mechanics, including the problem of ergodicity, and rigorous results on quantum chaos.