written by Harvey Gould and Jan Tobochnik

We apply the general formalism of statistical mechanics developed in Chapter 4 to the Ising model, a model magnetic system for which the interactions between the magnetic moments are important. We will discover that these interactions lead to a wide range of phenomena, including the existence of phase transitions and other cooperative phenomena. Computer simulation methods will be used extensively and a simple approximation method known as mean-field theory will be introduced. The simulations can be found by searching ComPADRE for Open Source Physics, STP, or Statistical and Thermal Physics.

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Published March 5, 2008
Last Modified January 16, 2015

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