Critical Exponent
Critical exponents describe the behaviour of physical quantities near continuous phase transitions. It is believed, though not proven, that they are universal, i.e. they do not depend on the details of the physical system, but only on
- the dimension of the system,
- the range of the interaction,
- the spin dimension.
These properties of critical exponents are supported by experimental data. The experimental results can be theoretically achieved in mean field theory for higher-dimensional systems (4 or more dimensions). The theoretical treatment of lower-dimensional systems (1 or 2 dimensions) is more difficult and requires the renormalization group. Phase transitions and critical exponents appear also in percolation systems.
Read more about Critical Exponent: Definition, The Most Important Critical Exponents, Mean Field Theory, Experimental Values, Scaling Functions, Scaling Relations, Anisotropy, Multicritical Points, Static Versus Dynamic Properties, Transport Properties, Self-organized Criticality, Percolation Theory
Famous quotes containing the word critical:
“The male has been persuaded to assume a certain onerous and disagreeable rôle with the promise of rewards—material and psychological. Women may in the first place even have put it into his head. BE A MAN! may have been, metaphorically, what Eve uttered at the critical moment in the Garden of Eden.”
—Wyndham Lewis (1882–1957)