Research into Various Exact and Numerical Aspects of Critical Phenomena

Objective

"A cornerstone in the study of phase transitions is the principal of universality. This maintains that entire families of systems behave identically in the neighbourhood of criticality, such as the transition point between a liquid and a gas or at the Curie point in a magnet, at which two phases become indistinguishable. Near the critical point, thermodynamic observables and critical exponents do not depend on the details of intermolecular interactions. Instead they depend only on the range of interactions, symmetries and spatial dimensionality. This fact allows us to understand real materials and systems through simplified mathematical models.

The universality concept is commonly stated together with the hypotheses of scaling and finite-size scaling. The associated theories have been mostly successful in describing critical and non-critical properties, but significant discrepancies between them and experiments remain. To understand the experiments, the theories have to be improved. This project seeks to increase our understanding by researching corrections to scaling. Our proposal is to investigate statistical mechanical models in an attempt to place our theoretical understanding of critical phenomena closer on firmer ground and to render them closer to experimental measurements.

We will especially target universality, scaling, and finite-size effects in two dimensional models of statistical mechanics as these can be tackled using exact methods, as well as analytic and numerical ones. In addition, more challenging three dimensional models will be investigated.

Theories of critical phenomena in particular are crucial in our understanding of how everything depends on everything else in many disciplines outside physics. It thus permeates all of natural sciences and even beyond. It is therefore a priority that this foundation stone be correct, exact and fully understood."

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.

• natural sciences physical sciences classical mechanics statistical mechanics
• natural sciences mathematics applied mathematics mathematical model

Programme(s)

Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.

• FP7-PEOPLE - Specific programme "People" implementing the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Community for research, technological development and demonstration activities (2007 to 2013)

Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

• FP7-PEOPLE-2011-IIF - Marie Curie Action: "International Incoming Fellowships"

Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

FP7-PEOPLE-2011-IIF
See other projects for this call

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

MC-IIF - International Incoming Fellowships (IIF)

Coordinator