Information loss in phase transitions

There are universal features associated with a range of critical phenomena, such as thermal phase transitions or transitions associated with 'exceptional points' where eigenvectors of a matrix coalesce. These include, for example, the breakdown of adiabatic approximations, the curvature divergence of the parameter-space at critical points, or the loss of information concerning the initial state of the system as one passes through critical points. This talk will sketch some of these ideas that suggest that perhaps exceptional point physics is not all that different from critical phenomena in thermal physics.