After a brief general overview of Monte Carlo computer simulations in statistical physics, special emphasis is placed on applications to phase transitions and critical phenomena. Here, standard simulations employing local update algorithms are severely hampered by the problem of critical slowing...

Under certain conditions phase transitions in systems with quenched disorder are expected to exhibit a different behaviour than in the corresponding pure system. Here we discuss a series of Monte Carlo studies of a special type of such disordered systems, namely spin models defined on quenched,...