Abstract

Structural phase transitions in condensed matter are characterized by: 1) The appearance of a static order parameter (like the spontaneous polarization in ferroelectrics, the sublattice polarization in antiferroelectrics, or the long range orientational ordering in nematic liquid crystals) which breaks the symmetry of the high temperature phase and characterizes the new phase, and by 2) Critical order parameter fluctuations, which increase in amplitude and which relax back to equilibrium ever more slowly as the critical point is approached.

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