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:
“When van Gogh paints sunflowers, he reveals, or achieves, the vivid relation between himself, as man, and the sunflower, as sunflower, at that quick moment of time. His painting does not represent the sunflower itself. We shall never know what the sunflower itself is. And the camera will visualize the sunflower far more perfectly than van Gogh can.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“But she rode it out,
That old rose-house,
She hove into the teeth of it,”
—Theodore Roethke (19081963)
“Losing faith in your own singularity is the start of wisdom, I suppose; also the first announcement of death.”
—Peter Conrad (b. 1948)