Professor
Research Interests:
Kinetics of Phase Transitions
My research interests include the kinetics of phase transitions, the physics of earthquakes and the study of damage in materials. The study of the kinetics of phase transitions involves understanding nucleation from metastable states, the evolution of unstable states and the formation of glasses. The study of earthquakes involves constructing models, both mathematical and numerical, of earthquake fault systems understanding the physics of these models and applying this understanding to predict the behavior of actual fault systems. Understanding the physics of damage involves understanding how damage is created in materials and how the damage affects processes such as phase transitions and fracture. The methods we use to study these problems include statistical field theories, stochastic methods such as the Langevin and Fokker-Planck equation and simulations including Monte Carlo, molecular dynamics and non-Boltzmann sampling methods.
Selected Publications:
O.Peters and W. Klein, “Ergodicity Breaking in Geometric Brownian Motion” Physical Review Letters, 110, 100603 (2013)
C. Serino, K. F. Tiampo and W. Klein, “ A New Approach to Gutenburg-Richter Scaling” Physical Review Letters 106, 108501 (2011)
W. Klein, H. Gould, N. Gulbahce, J. B. Rundle and K. F. Tiampo, “The Structure of Fluctuations near Mean-Field Critical Points and Spinodals and its Implication for Physical Processes” Phys. Rev. E 75, 031114 (2007) cond. mat. 0607066
W. Klein, “The Instability of Alexander-McTague Crystals and its Implication for Nucle-ation” Phys. Rev. E, 64, 056110 (2001)
W. Klein and G. G. Batrouni, “Supersymmetry in Spinodal Decomposition and Continuous Ordering,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 67, 1278 (1991)
For a full list of publications, please see the attached CV.
Biography:
I received my PhD in Physics at Temple University and did post-doctoral work at the National Institute
Honors/Awards:
- Ulam Scholar, Center for Non-Linear Studies, Los Alamos National Laboratory
- Fellow of the American Physical Society