David A. Lavis – författare

The aim of this text is to provide an account of the fundamentals of thermodynamics which is accessible at graduate level to physicists, mathematicians and philosophers of physics. The bulk of the book (Chapters 2-9) is based on the algebraic approach of Lieb and Yngvason, but extended to encompass both positive and negative temperatures and systems in which entropy increases and decreases in adiabatic processes. We show that these four possibilities are already present in Carathéodory''s version of the Second Law which arises as a theorem from the axioms. We develop generalized versions of the Kelvin-Planck and Clausius formulations valid for the same range of systems. The parallel development in Chapter 10 takes a geometric approach. We discuss the limitations associated with the local nature of Carathéodory''s Principle and present the resolution of this problem due to Boyling. Part of the aim here is to substantiate the claim of Arnold that the mathematical structure of thermodynamics is contact geometry. The last two chapters of the book extend the scope of the discussion to, respectively, critical phenomena and non-equilibrium systems. Chapter 11 is a presentation of phase transitions and critical phenomena in which we discuss universality and use scaling theory to derive scaling laws. Chapter 12 contains a generalization to non-equilibrium. We present the extension of Lieb and Yngvason''s work to non-equilibrium and also give a brief account of classical irreversible thermodynamics (CIT). The latter enables a possible understanding of the way that the lack of a unique entropy function in the Lieb and Yngvason non-equilibrium approach can be resolved. The book is completed by a set of appendices which provide mathematical and physical support to the work in the main text.

Most interesting and difficult problems in equilibrium statistical mechanics concern models which exhibit phase transitions. For graduate students and more experienced researchers this book provides an invaluable reference source of approximate and exact solutions for a comprehensive range of such models.Part I contains background material on classical thermodynamics and statistical mechanics, together with a classification and survey of lattice models. The geometry of phase transitions is described and scaling theory is used to introduce critical exponents and scaling laws. An introduction is given to finite-size scaling, conformal invariance and Schramm—Loewner evolution.Part II contains accounts of classical mean-field methods. The parallels between Landau expansions and catastrophe theory are discussed and Ginzburg--Landau theory is introduced. The extension of mean-field theory to higher-orders is explored using the Kikuchi--Hijmans--De Boer hierarchy of approximations.In Part III the use of algebraic, transformation and decoration methods to obtain exact system information is considered. This is followed by an account of the use of transfer matrices for the location of incipient phase transitions in one-dimensionally infinite models and for exact solutions for two-dimensionally infinite systems. The latter is applied to a general analysis of eight-vertex models yielding as special cases the two-dimensional Ising model and the six-vertex model. The treatment of exact results ends with a discussion of dimer models. In Part IV series methods and real-space renormalization group transformations are discussed. The use of the De Neef—Enting finite-lattice method is described in detail and applied to the derivation of series for a number of model systems, in particular for the Potts model. The use of Pad\''e, differential and algebraic approximants to locate and analyze second- and first-order transitions is described. The realization of the ideasof scaling theory by the renormalization group is presented together with treatments of various approximation schemes including phenomenological renormalization. Part V of the book contains a collection of mathematical appendices intended to minimise the need to refer to other mathematical sources.