Quotes About Phase transitions

For the ten-dimensional universe, however, there are apparemtly millions of ways in which to curl up. To calculate which state the ten-dimensional universe prefers, we need to solve the field theory of strings using the theory of phase transitions, the most difficult problem in quantum theory.

From a purely mathematical perspective, a power law signifies nothing in particular—it's just one of many possible kinds of algebraic relationship. But when a physicist sees a power law, his eyes light up. For power laws hint that a system may be organizing itself. They arise at phase transitions, when a system is poised at the brink, teetering between order and chaos. They arise in fractals, when an arbitrarily small piece of a complex shape is a microcosm of the whole.

Fluid dynamicists just did not believe them. They were not accustomed to experiments in the precise style of phase-transition physics.

More Phase Transitions This principle applies just as much to the spread of infectious diseases or magnetic polarity as to forest fires. It is essentially the same process unfolding.

What we find is highly sensitive dependence to initial conditions, producing phase transitions. Once a critical threshold is passed, the fire spreads outwards, the disease becomes an epidemic, the material magnetic.