Sections

Introduction

Identify the Broken Symmetry

Define the Order Parameter

Examine the Elementary Excitations

Classify the Topological Defects

Acknowledgements

References

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Acknowledgements

This work was funded by the US Government, National Science Foundation grant number DMR-9118065. I was visiting Denmark that year, and would like to thank thank NORDITA and the Technical University of Denmark for their hospitality while these lectures were written up.

Jim Sethna, sethna@lassp.cornell.edu

Statistical Mechanics: Entropy, Order Parameters, and Complexity, now available at Oxford University Press (USA, Europe).