A Van Hove singularity is a singularity (non-smooth point) in the density of states (DOS) of a crystalline solid. The wavevectors at which Van Hove singularities occur are often referred to as critical points of the Brillouin zone. (The critical point found in phase diagrams is a completely separate phenomenon.) For three-dimensional crystals, they take the form of kinks (where the density of states is not differentiable). The most common application of the Van Hove singularity concept comes in the analysis of optical absorption spectra. The occurrence of such singularities was first analyzed by the Belgian physicist Léon Van Hove in 1953 for the case of phonon densities of states.
Read more about Van Hove Singularity: Theory, Experimental Observation
Famous quotes containing the words van, hove and/or singularity:
“The three main medieval points of view regarding universals are designated by historians as realism, conceptualism, and nominalism. Essentially these same three doctrines reappear in twentieth-century surveys of the philosophy of mathematics under the new names logicism, intuitionism, and formalism.”
—Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)
“But she rode it out,
That old rose-house,
She hove into the teeth of it,”
—Theodore Roethke (1908–1963)
“Losing faith in your own singularity is the start of wisdom, I suppose; also the first announcement of death.”
—Peter Conrad (b. 1948)