Hysteresis and hierarchies: dynamics of disorder-driven first-order phase transformations

Sethna, James P.; Dahmen, Karin; Kartha, Sivan; Krumhansl, James A.; Roberts, Bruce W.; Shore, Joel D.

Hysteresis and hierarchies: dynamics of disorder-driven first-order phase transformations

Authors

Description

We use the zero-temperature random-field Ising model to study hysteretic behavior at first-order phase transitions. Sweeping the external field through zero, the model exhibits hysteresis, the return-point memory effect, and avalanche fluctuations. There is a critical value of disorder at which a jump in the magnetization (corresponding to an infinite avalanche) first occurs. We study the universal behavior at this critical point using mean-field theory, and also present preliminary results of numerical simulations in three dimensions.
12 pages plus 2 appended figures, plain TeX, CU-MSC-7479