The hysteresis of an inhomogeneous system

Abstract
A simple model is introduced to study the hysteresis of a phase transition in an inhomogeneous system e.g. in a composite material. The inhomogeneity is described by a thermodynamic potential which depends on some space dependent order parameter and is also an explicit function of the space vector r. The coupling between different regions is approximated by a molecular field ansatz. In particular we study the influence of the coupling strength and the degree of inhomogeneity on the width and spread of the hysteresis.

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