Transport theory and the founding of condensed matter physics

Abstract

In 1966, Woon Siong Gan coined and invented the name transport theory in condensed matter physics. Today, transport theory is the backbone theory of condensed matter physics and the whole condensed matter physics can be represented by transport theory. His PhD thesis pioneered the application of statistical mechanics to ultrasound propagation in semiconductor in the presence of high magnetic fields and low temperatures with the phase transition from the spherical energy surface of metal to the warped energy surface of semiconductor. The usual treatment is using the many-body theory of quantum field theory. Phase transition is an important topic in condensed matter physics. Thus, his PhD thesis also played a role in the founding of condensed matter physics. In this paper, transport theory is applied to phase transition, an important topic in condensed matter physics. The advantages of using transport theory is its broad coverage of both particles interaction and description of the singularity characteristics of phase transition. An example for illustration is that of magnetization which has Ising model describing spins interaction and the Lee Yang theory describing the singularity behavior of the partition function at the critical point of phase transition.