# Tag Info

## Hot answers tagged solid-state-physics

5

First let me make two comments before answering the question. The difference between metal and insulator rest in the existence of the itinerant electron Fermi surface or not. Ising (or Heisenberg) model is just an effective theory of local moments (localized electrons in the atoms), which contains no information of the itinerant electron, so there is no ...

3

It is not thermodynamics that controls crystal formation at the atomic level, but quantum mechanics. Large crystals, from diamonds to clear ice crystals are a macroscopic manifestation of the underlying quantum dynamical level. The molecules that build up the crystal have such field properties, dipoles and quadrupole and even higher moments that have ...

3

The main justification for considering the Ising model is that it's exactly solvable in one & two dimensions (and that it shows critical behavior which is universal in some sense). It is not particularly meaningful as an approximation to a real physical system. The Heisenberg model does a much better job, but it is also a lattice model. If you really ...

2

In spin liquids, the ordered state is broken by zero-point fluctuations even at $T=0$. Even though it is common for spin liquids to be frustrated, it is not necessarily so. The $S=1$ Heisenberg spin chain (AFM), for example, is a spin liquid without being frustrated. The name spin liquid comes (I believe), from the exponentially decaying correlation (like ...

2

To grasp the relevant physics at a sloppy level, perhaps you simply need a few examples. You know a concept is commonly constructed by the manner you refer to it together with other concepts. Symmetry breaking usually results in ground state degeneracy and long range order. Order parameter field aids you in identifying degenerate sectors with the symmetries ...

2

Hopping and tunneling are often used as synonyms, but they are really very different terms with a fundamentally different basis. Tunneling is an inherently quantum-mechanical feature which means that a particle wave-function tends to overlap into it's energetically disallowed area which leads to a non-zero probability of finding it "where it should not be". ...

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The problem is: $(AB)^\dagger=B^\dagger A^\dagger$. Look how you treat $c^\dagger c$.

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A sharp knife is still several molecules thick on the edge; dull blades are even wider. So when you attempt to cut material, it needs to be ripped apart. As explained in other answers, the material either fractures along faults in the lattice, or you separate molecules (as when you cut bread). The only materials where you might split chemical bonds are ...

1

By inhomogeneous I assume you mean disordered, i.e., a system with a noisy/random potential landscape. I'm not sure which Mahan book you are referring to, however I found Akkermans and Montambaux' Mesoscopic Physics of Electrons and Photons to give a good discussion of the problem of wave propagation in disordered media. Essentially the problem is "solved" ...

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For a metal, the permittivity can is typically described by the Drude model with a permittivity given by, $$\epsilon = \epsilon' - i\epsilon'' = \epsilon_\infty - \frac{\omega_p^2}{\omega(\omega - i\gamma)} = \epsilon_\infty - \frac{\omega_p^2}{\omega^2 + \gamma^2} + i\gamma\omega\frac{\omega_p^2}{\omega^2 + \gamma^2}$$ where ...

1

Because orthorhombic has a higher symmetry. Both orthorhombic and monoclinic have unit cells with unequal edge lengths ($a \ne b \ne c$). All of the unit cell angles are 90 degrees for orthorhombic ($\alpha = \beta = \gamma = 90^{\circ}$). However, for monoclinic, one of the angles is not $90^{\circ}$ - this reduces the symmetry of the crystal. While you ...

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There's a nitinol wire that stiffens when warm and softens when cool. It's been used in various patented heat engine applications. see this reference http://www.imagesco.com/articles/nitinol/09.html

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The thing you are looking for is called the Sommerfeld Expansion. The integral you specify can be approximated quite well to calculate the chemical potential (different to $E_F$ when the electrons are not completely degenerate) and expressions for the number density and energy density of the electrons when the chemical potential (or $E_F$) is larger than ...

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