Transitions de phase

Typical configuration of the Ising model close to the critical point

• Teaching team and schedule:
  • Guillame Roux, course on Fridays 9am-11:30am
  • Thomas Noblet, tutorials on Fridays 1:30pm-4pm

• Syllabus:
  • Mean-field description of the ferromagnetic Ising model
  • Landau's phenomenology and classification
  • Inhomogeneous systems: Ginzburg-Landau
  • Fluctuations
  • Scale invariance and universality
  • Dynamics of phase transitions

• Lectures notes and tutorials:
  • Lectures notes by Nicolas Pavloff (in French)
  • Tutorials (in English)

• Bibliography:
  • Pavloff & Sator : physique statistique (main reference, in French)
  • Chaikin & Lubensky : principles of condensed matter
  • Batrouni, le Bellac, Mortessagne : Equilibrium and Non-Equilibrium Statistical Thermodynamics

• Evaluation
  • continuous assessment: 4 little exercices (finishing last questions) during the tutorials, each two weeks
  • final exam : 3 hours, written exam
  • final grade = (2*FE + CA)/3

• Schedule
  • 01/12 :
  • 08/12 :
  • 15/12 :
  • 22/12 :
  • Xmas break
  • 26/01 :
  • 02/02 :
  • 09/02 :
  • 16/02 :
  • 23/02 :
  • Winter break
  • 09/03 :
  • 16/03 : Exams

• Annals (most are actually in the tutorials), in French :
  • 2013 : liquid crystals (done in tutorials)
  • 2014 : critical temperature of finite-size system, polymers (done in tutorials)
  • 2015 : exam - correction for front propagation (van der waals done in tutorials)
  • 2016 : Bose-Einstein condensates exam - correction
  • 2017 : Coupled order parameters - Cahn-Hilliard equation exam - correction