Models of Mixed Matter

Abstract

The review considers statistical systems composed of several phases that are intermixed in space at mesoscopic scale and systems representing a mixture of several components of microscopic objects. These types of mixtures should be distinguished from the Gibbs phase mixture, where the system is filled by macroscopic pieces of phases. The description of the macroscopic Gibbs mixture is rather simple, consisting in the consideration of pure phases separated by a surface, whose contribution becomes negligible in thermodynamic limit. The properties of mixtures, where phases are intermixed at mesoscopic scale, are principally different. The emphasis in the review is on the matter with phases mixed at mesoscopic scale. Heterogeneous materials composed of mesoscopic mixtures are ubiquitous in nature. A general theory of such mesoscopic mixtures is presented and illustrated by several condensed matter models. A mixture of several components of microscopic objects is illustrated by clustering quark-hadron matter.