Specific heat of nickel in the critical region

Abstract

Published specific heat data for nickel have been reanalysed to determine whether the parameters describing the critical temperature region are consistent with available theoretical estimates based on renormalisation group and field theoretical methods for continuous spin systems. The results for amplitude ratios are consistent with theoretical estimates based on the isotropic Heisenberg model, but the value deduced from the data for the specific heat exponent, alpha , is not in particularly good agreement with any theoretical predictions. Reasons for this are discussed.