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Simple models reproduce quantitative behavior of real magnetic materials with complex interactions
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Fundamental to the development of the theory of phase transitions and critical phenomena, which has very wide applicability.
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Computational algorithms and techniques can be applied to other fields, e.g.
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Monte Carlo simulation of lattice models of quantum field theory and quantum gravity
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simulation of polymers, proteins, cell membranes
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simulated annealing and other "physical" methods for global optimization
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neural networks
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condensed matter problems, e.g. superconducters
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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.
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Monte Carlo Algorithms
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measurements and data analysis
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random numbers generators
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