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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Finite size effects at phase transitions

subject

description

For many models of statistical thermodynamics and of lattice gauge theory computer simulation methods have become a valuable tool for the study of critical phenomena, to locate phase transitions, distinguish whether they are of first or second order, and so on. Since simulations always deal with finite systems, analysis of finite size effects by suitable finite size scaling concepts is a key ingredient of such applications. The phenomenological theory of finite size scaling is reviewed with emphasis on the concept of probability distributions of order parameter and/or energy. Attention is also drawn to recent developments concerning anisotropic geometries and anisotropic critical behavior, as well as to crossover phenomena from one “universality class” to another.