Critical dynamics: a field-theoretical approach
May, 2006Citations per year
Abstract: (IOP)
We review the progress made in dynamic bulk critical behaviour in equilibrium in the last 25 years since the review of Halperin and Hohenberg. We unify the presentation of the theoretical background by restricting ourselves to the field-theoretic renormalization group method. The main results obtained in the different universality classes are presented. This contains the critical dynamics near the gas–liquid transition in pure fluids (model H), the plait point and consolute point in mixtures (model H'), the superfluid transition in4He (model F) and4He–3He mixtures (model F'), the Curie point (model J) and Neel point (model G) in Heisenberg magnets and the superconducting transition. In comparison with experimental results, it became clear that in most cases one has to consider apart from the universal asymptotic critical behaviour also the non-universal effective behaviour. Either because it turned out to be inevitable due to a small dynamical transient exponent inhibiting the system to reach the asymptotics (e.g., at the superfluid transition) or because one is interested in the region further away from the phase transition like in pure fluids and mixtures at their gas–liquid or demixing transition. The calculation of the critical dynamics is adequate in most cases only in two-loop order. We review these results and present the solution to unreasonable features found for some models. Thus, we consider model C where relaxational and diffusive dynamics are coupled and the scaling properties and the limit to a purely relaxational model (model A) have not been understood. In general for models where the order parameter couples to other conserved densities time scale ratios between the kinetic coefficients of the order parameter and the conserved densities play an important role. Their fixed-point values and the approach to the fixed point are changed considerably in two-loop order compared to their values in one-loop order. These considerations are relevant for the explanation of the dynamical critical shape functions of systems such as superfluid helium (model F) and the isotropic antiferromagnet (model G). As far as possible, the comparison of results obtained by the renormalization group theory with numerical simulations has been made.- review
- critical phenomena
- renormalization group
- universality
- fluid
- superfluid
- fixed point
- field theory
- numerical calculations: interpretation of experiments
- bibliography
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