Field Theoretic Method in Phase Transformations

Alex Umantsev is a Professor of Materials Physics in the Department of Chemistry, Physics, and Materials Science at Fayetteville State University in North Carolina.  He earned his doctorate in 1986 in Moscow (Russia) and worked as a research associate at Northwestern University in the early 1990s.  After that he began his teaching career. His research interests are in the areas of materials theory and multiscale modeling of phase transformations in traditional small-molecule metallic or ceramic systems to crystallization of macromolecules of polymers and proteins. He has always been interested in the processing-structure-properties relations of materials ranging from their production to the analysis of their failure.

• PART I: Classical Theories of Phase Equilibria and Transformations.- Chapter 1: Stability of Systems and States.- Chapter 2: Thermodynamic Equilibrium of Phases.- Chapter 3: Examples of Phase Transitions.- Chapter 4: Isothermal Kinetics of Phase Transformations.- Chapter 5: Coarsening of Second Phase Precipitates.- Chapter 6: Spinodal Decomposition in Binary Systems.- Chapter 7: Thermal Effects in Kinetics of Phase Transformations.- PART II: The Method.- Chapter 8: Landau Theory of Phase Transitions.- Chapter 9: Heterogeneous Equilibrium Systems.- Chapter 10: Dynamics of Homogeneous Systems.- Chapter 11: Evolution of Heterogeneous Systems.- Chapter 12: Thermodynamic Fluctuations.- Chapter 13: Multi-Physics Coupling: Thermal Effects of Phase Transformations.- Chapter 14: Validation of the Method.- PART III: Applications.- Chapter 15: Conservative Order Parameter:Theory of Spinodal Decomposition in Binary Systems.- Chapter 16: Complex Order Parameter: Ginzburg-Landau’s Theory of Superconductivity.- Chapter 17: Multicomponent Order Parameter: Crystallographic Phase Transitions.- Chapter 18: “Mechanical” Order Parameter.- Chapter 19: Continuum Models of Grain Growth.