The essence of phase transitions in condensed matter by an information theoretic approach.

ABSTRACT: Our information theoretic considerations suggest that the essence of phase transitions in condensed matter is the change in entropy as reflected in the change in the number of isomers between two phases. The explicit number of isomers as a function of size is computed using a graph theoretic approach that is compared to a direct count for smaller systems. This allows us to apply a common approach to both nanosystems and their macroscopic limit. The entropy increases very rapidly with size with the results that replacing the actual distribution over size by an average is not an accurate approximation. That the phase transition is a sharp function of the temperature is due to the high heat capacity of both the solid and liquid phases. The difference in entropy at the transition is related to

SUBMITTER: Raz T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10466103 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature