The critical behaviour of thin films containing quenched random impurities and inhomogeneities is investigated by the renormalization-group method to the one-loop order within the framework of the n-component φ4-model. The finite-size crossover in impure films has been considered on the basis...

We discuss the critical behavior of nonequilibrium anisotropic systems, particularly the driven lattice gas and its variants. A large series of available numerical results depict a coherent picture consistent with specific predictions drawn from novel field theory and its renormalization group...

We calculate the probability distribution of repetitions of ancestors in a genealogical tree for simple neutral models of a closed population with sexual reproduction and non-overlapping generations. Each ancestor at generation g in the past has a weight w which is (up to a normalization) the...

After a brief general overview of Monte Carlo computer simulations in statistical physics, special emphasis is placed on applications to phase transitions and critical phenomena. Here, standard simulations employing local update algorithms are severely hampered by the problem of critical slowing...

The specific Gibbs free energy has been calculated for the infinite range Ising model with fixed and finite interaction strength. The model shows a temperature driven first-order phase transition that differs from the infinite ranged Ising model with weak coupling. In the temperature-field phase...

We present ellipsometry and interferrometry experiments which allow us to observe the transition point between the standard first-order wetting and the long-range critical wetting. Moreover we provide a direct measurement of the free-energy singularities in the sequential wetting scenario of...

When confining vacuum fluctuations between two identical walls, the Casimir force manifests itself as a mutual attraction of the walls. When confining concentration fluctuations of a binary liquid mixture, an analogous force should exist near the critical temperature TC; it is called the critical...