Example: Spin Models of Magnetism

This example will be used as the basis for most of the discussion of simulation in statistic physics, for a number of reasons:

• Simple models of real physical systems

• Relevant to a variety of other systems linked by the theory of critical phenomena and phase transitions, e.g. thermodynamics and quantum field theory

• Analytic solutions exist for some simple models, which is useful for checking numerical techniques

• Classic example of the use of Monte Carlo methods

• Different algorithms exist

• Interesting application for parallel computation -- a lot of work has been done on parallel computers (and has helped drive their development)