At the terminus of the liquid-vapor transition line, where the two thermodynamic phases become identical, there occurs a bright scatering of light, called critical opalescence, a visible striking signature of the critical behavior. Criticality and phase transitions are ubiquous phenomena observed in a variety of systems of distinct natures: ferromagnetic materials, liquid-vapor, alloys, liquid crystals, etc. Although of distinct natures, they can be studied in a unified way by means of the concept of universality of the critical behavior. This is the cetral idea of the studies carried out by the researchers of the Group of Statistical Physics. They use cooperative statistical mechanical models with many degrees of freedom, which are studied by analytical tools provided by the methods of mathematical physics and approximative approaches as well as computer simulation methods, such as Monte Carlo. Stochastic dynamics is a powerful approach used to describe nonequilibrium systems, population dynamics and spreading of disease. The Group of Mathematical Physics aims to provide theoritical physics with powerful mathematical tools and encompasses other directions in addition to statistical mechanics and stochastic processes such as field theory, quantum and classical mechanics, and general relativity. Complex systems, such as the neural networks, are also the object of study. Dynamical systems, with deterministic chaos, are investigated from the theoretical point of view and experimentally in the Nonlinear Phenomena Laboratory.
Statistical mechanics
André de Pinho Vieira
Carla Goldman
Carlos Eduardo Fiore dos Santos
Carlos Eugênio Imbassahy Carneiro
Carlos Sehiti Orii Yokoi
Silvio Roberto de Azevedo Salinas
Vera Bohomoletz Henriques
Stochastic dynamics
Mário José de Oliveira
Tânia Tomé Martins de Castro
Complex systems
Carmen Pimentel Cintra do Prado
Nestor Felipe Caticha Alfonso
Mathematical physics
Domingos Humberto Urbano Marchetti
João Carlos Alves Barata
Paulo Teotônio Sobrinho
Walter Alberto de Siqueira Pedra
Dynamical systems
Iberê Luiz Caldas
José Carlos Sartorelli
