Physics (Internal)

The Harris Criterion and Fixed Spin Quenched Disorder

This event is part of the Preliminary Oral Exam.

Examining Committee: William Klein, Rama Bansil, Kevin Black, Anders Sandvik

Abstract: The search for universality has fascinated physicist for greater part of the last half of a century. The effect of quenched disorder on the physical properties of a material illicits the question of determining if a system with quenched disorder changes universality class and under which conditions. A. B. Harris developed a criterion to answer such questions for spin systems with quenched disorder in the form of dilution in the 70's. I will present work on the applicability of the Harris criterion on spin systems with quenched fixed spin disorder in the Ising model that addresses the questions of when the Harris criterion must be modified. This work will also necessitate exploring how the pseudospinodal of the system is affected by the quenched disorder. The applicability of such disorder is seen in the physics of binary fluids in gels.