Quantum phase transitions occur at zero temperature driven by quantum fluctuations instead of thermal fluctuations. They take place due to competing ground state phases that are accessible for different values of certain non-thermal parameters such as coupling constants, pressure or magnetic field. The chapter starts with a discussion of the main phenomenological features of this class of non-thermal transitions. In particular, it is argued that traces of these transitions can be detected at finite (but low) temperature. Then, examples of materials that show this behaviour are provided. Finally, the quantum Ising model is discussed and it is shown that a quantum model in d dimensions can be mapped to a classical model in d+1 dimensions.

The chapter discusses caloric materials, which are those that show large and reversible thermal response to an applied external field, either mechanical, electric or magnetic. The corresponding effects are denoted as mechanocaloric, electrocaloric and magnetocaloric effects, respectively. The response is usually quantified by the changes of entropy and temperature induced by isothermal and adiabatic application/removal of a field, respectively. These quantities are large in the vicinity of phase transitions and, in particular, close to a first-order transition where the latent heat provides a large caloric response. Well-known examples are ferroic materials in the vicinity of their transition towards the ferroic phase. The chapter starts with the study of caloric effects near a critical point and subsequently caloric behaviour near a first-order transition is analysed. Then, the possibility of multicaloric effects that can be induced by multiple fields in multiferroic materials is considered and a general thermodynamic formalism of multicaloric effects is developed.

The ‘Cane Sugar Campaign’, launched in 1968, introduced a distinctly political perspective in campaigns for fair trade, exposing the unequal structures of global trade around the disparities in the global sugar trade. The campaign was ignited by the stalling negotiations of the United Nations Conferences on Trade and Development in 1964 and 1968. It thus directly responded to the impact of decolonization in international politics. Through transferring these issues to local activism, it related such international development to the everyday lives of people in Western Europe. The chapter charts the emergence of attempts to address global inequality through interventions in national, European, and international politics. It then shows how European integration in particular prompted activists to set up transnational campaigns, but also severely hampered attempts at campaigning because of the difficulty of transnational communication as well as a lack of experience in addressing transnational institutions.

Liquid crystals are complex materials that share properties of both solids and liquids. This is a consequence of complex anisotropic molecules that permit establishing phases with orientational and positional orders. Thus, a large variety of phases and phase transitions can occur in these systems. After a detailed description of general features of these materials, the tensorial nature of the orientational order parameter is discussed. Then, the Landau–de Gennes theory is developed for the isotropic–nematic transition. Later, positional degrees of freedom are included to account for the nematic–smectic transition. Next, the theory is generalized to include fluctuations, distortions and the effect of an external field. In the last part, topological defects are discussed with a particular emphasis on defects such as skyrmions and merons which can form in chiral liquid crystals such as cholesteric and blue phases. Finally, the analogy of these classes of defects with those occurring in non-collinear magnetic materials is considered.

What is the rationale for bringing together archaic and classical lyric and imperial Greek literature, in the form of epideictic oratory? This chapter explains how such different genres and media (poetry/prose) were in fact akin as both genres ‘of presence’ centred on performance, embedded in well-defined occasions, and negotiating similar discourses of praise and blame. It then sets out the book’s aims and methodology by contextualising them within the ever-growing scholarship on imperial Greek culture. It clarifies what is meant by ‘lyric’ throughout the analysis, and how this use of the term marks a substantial departure from the few previous studies on imperial lyric reception. A similar departure concerns the approach to quotations, intertextuality and pragmatics of reading, which crucially distances this analysis from scholarship focused on Quellenforschung issues. The chapter ends by introducing Aristides’ distinctive engagement with lyric and its impact on our understanding of his works and figure.

This chapter explores how civil society mobilization in Latin America can undercut a core component of liberal democracy: the experience of universal citizenship rights backed by rule of law. It examines civil society activism around two issue areas: opposition to inclusion on the lines of gender identity and sexuality, and support for militarized approaches to policing. Right-wing civil society groups repurpose rights ideas that are typically associated with the left to contract the citizenship rights of marginalized groups that they depict as existential threats to society, including poor and racialized adolescents, people experiencing homelessness, and sexual minorities. In the process, right-wing groups construct discourses about which kinds of individuals have the rights of citizenship, and which kinds of individuals imperil the rights of truly deserving citizens. The discursive foundations laid by civil society provide rich terrain for illiberal politicians to build on and mobilize political support.

Coffee has arguably been the essential product of fair trade activism. This chapter analyzes how earlier campaigns to promote fair trade around coffee eventually evolved into the practice of certification. Certification has been the most visible and economically impactful aspect of fair trade activism. At the same time, it has been criticized for introducing a predominantly economic and non-transformative perspective into the movement. Based on a new analysis of the emergence of certification first in the Dutch organization Max Havelaar and then in the context of international cooperation of fair trade organizations, this chapter demonstrates that certification has to be regarded not just as a means to sell more products, but also as a tool to gain more political and economic leverage. The introduction of fair trade certification was part of a broader trend in which fair trade activism became more professional and engaged new stakeholders such as supermarkets.

This chapter explores Or. 24, an emergency intervention concerning Rhodes. Internal strife had recently broken out in the community, which could prompt Roman rulers to deprive Rhodes of its status as civitas libera. To facilitate the end of stasis, Aristides mobilises the full spectrum of political lyric: canonical poets are recalled alongside mythical singers, while monodic and choral performances are brought into play to exalt harmonia over stasis. Through this discursive re-enactment of lyric, Aristides transfers to his prose appeal the political effectiveness of lyric poetry and music. This intermedial strategy culminates in the evocation of Alcaeus’ poetry on stasis. Together with stasis-plagued Lesbos, Alcaeus embodies the spectre of civic discord which an orderly Dorian community like Rhodes must reject at all costs. Lyric reception thus brings into focus Aristides’ approach to contemporary politics, especially his awareness of what it meant for a Greek community to live under the scrutiny of Roman rulers.

The chapter introduces in a unified manner all ferroic materials including the three main ferroic systems, namely ferromagnetic, ferroelectric and ferroelastic, in addition to the case of materials that can display ferrotoroidic order. General physical aspects of magnetism, electricity and elasticity are used in order to introduce the order parameters that conveniently describe all these classes of ferroic phase transitions. It is shown that while the order parameter has a vectorial nature for ferromagnetic (axial vector), ferroelectric (polar vector) and magnetic ferrotoroidal (axial vector) systems, it is a rank-2 polar tensor in ferroelastic materials. The resulting physical differences arising from the different nature of the order parameter are then analysed in detail. Next, it is shown how to construct a convenient Ginszburg–Landau free energy functional in terms of these order parameters and their coupling for the different ferroic systems besides how to obtain the corresponding phase diagrams and microstructural features.

This chapter defines time inconsistency as the difference between the actual frequency of amendments and the one calculated on the basis of constitutional rigidity (Chapter 6). It proceeds to demonstrate that time inconsistency is proportional to the length of the constitution in all democracies. The reason is that “length” is correlated with “detail” (that is, the number of words per subject). This chapter provides empirical evidence that the length of constitutions is related to lower per capita income and higher corruption. These findings are consistent with the empirical research in US states that demonstrate that length of constitutions has a negative impact on GDP per capita, a positive one on unemployment, a positive one on Gini coefficients (inequalities), and a negative one on policy innovativeness (Brown 2021).

We consider solutions that can be obtained via dimensional reduction. We first consider the domain wall, both the perturbative nonrelativistic solution and the exact relativistic solution, first directly in four dimensions, and then show how it can be described via dimensional reduction. Then we consider the cosmic string solution, first directly in four dimensions, and then via dimensional reduction, and finally deriving it at weak field. Finally, we consider the BTZ black hole solution in 2+1 dimensions, deriving it directly, and then show how the BTZ solution and AdS space are continuously related.

The History of Mary Prince was the first account of the life of a Black woman to be published in the United Kingdom. Part of the avalanche of print culture that accompanied the transatlantic abolitionist movement, it has in recent years become an increasingly central text within pedagogy and research on Black history and literature, thanks to its vivid testimonies of Prince’s thoughts and feelings about her gendered experience of Caribbean slavery. Embracing and celebrating a growing international scholarly and general interest in African diasporic voices, texts, histories, and literary traditions, this Companion weds contributions from Romanticists, Caribbeanists, and Americanists to showcase the diversity of disciplinary encounters that Prince’s narrative invites, as well as its rich and troubled contexts. The first published collection on a single slave narrative or author, the volume is not only an authoritative, highly focused resource for students but also a model for future research.