| 1 |
Simple models reproduce quantitative behavior of real magnetic materials with complex interactions
|
| 2 |
Fundamental to the development of the theory of phase transitions and critical phenomena, which has very wide applicability.
|
| 3 |
Computational algorithms and techniques can be applied to other fields, e.g.
-
Monte Carlo simulation of lattice models of quantum field theory and quantum gravity
-
simulation of polymers, proteins, cell membranes
-
simulated annealing and other "physical" methods for global optimization
-
neural networks
-
condensed matter problems, e.g. superconducters
|
| 4 |
Since the models are simple and exact results are known in some cases (e.g. 2-d Ising Model), these are used as a testing ground for new computational techniques, e.g.
-
Monte Carlo Algorithms
-
measurements and data analysis
-
random numbers generators
|
