Non-Equilibrium Phase Transitions

The complete work consists of a two-volume set, describing two main classes of non-equilibrium phase-transitions, and surveys two main aspects of non-equilibrium phase-transitions: (a) transitions in the steady-state and (b) transitions in the relaxation behavior.Volume 1, Absorbing Phase Transitions, published in 2008, covered the statics and dynamics of transitions into an absorbing state.This volume 2 covers dynamical scaling in far-from-equilibrium relaxation behaviour and ageing. Motivated initially by experimental results, dynamical scaling has now been recognised as a cornerstone in the modern understanding of far from equilibrium relaxation. Dynamical scaling is systematically introduced, starting from coarsening phenomena, and existing analytical results and numerical estimates of universal non-equilibrium exponents and scaling functions are reviewed in detail. Ageing phenomena in glasses, as well as in simple magnets, are paradigmatic examples of non-equilibrium dynamical scaling, but may also be found in irreversible systems of chemical reactions. Recent theoretical work sought to understand if dynamical scaling may be just a part of a larger symmetry, called local scale-invariance. Initially, this was motivated by certain analogies with the conformal invariance of equilibrium phase transitions; this work has recently reached a degree of completion and the research is presented, systematically and in detail, in book form for the first time. Numerous worked-out exercises are included. Quite similar ideas apply to the phase transitions of equilibrium systems with competing interactions and interesting physical realisations, for example in Lifshitz points.Aimed at researchers and graduate students in physics, the book is also suitable supplementary reading for advanced undergraduate students.

Malte Henkel, born in 1960, received his Master's degree from the University of Bonn in 1984, and his PhD in 1987, when he also won the annual prize of the Minerva Foundation. From that year onward he has been a long-term visitor in many institutes, including the ITP at Santa Barbara, USA, the SPhT at Saclay, France, and the universities of Oxford, UK, Vienna, Austria, Padova, Italy, and Lisbon, Portugal. In 1995 he was appointed a professor at the University of Nancy I. His current research encompasses equilibrium and non-equilibrium phase transitions, using field-theoretical and numerical methods in general. In particular, his current focus is on dynamical scaling behaviour realised in ageing phenomena far from equilibrium. He has published well over a hundred articles and three monographs, one of which is Volume I of this set.