Back to Search
Start Over
Phase transitions in the complex plane of physical parameters
- Source :
- Scientific Reports
- Publication Year :
- 2014
-
Abstract
- At low temperature a thermodynamic system undergoes a phase transition when a physical parameter passes through a singularity point of the free energy, corresponding to formation of a new order. At high temperature the thermal fluctuations destroy the orders; correspondingly the free energy is a smooth function of the physical parameter and the singularity would occur only at complex values of the parameter. Since a complex parameter is unphysical, at high temperature no phase transition is expected with varying the physical parameter. Here we show that the quantum evolution, driven by a designed interaction, of a system initialized in thermal equilibrium is equivalent to the partition function of a complex parameter. Therefore we can access the complex singularity points of thermodynamic functions and observe phase transitions even at high temperatures. This discovery makes it possible to study thermodynamics in the complex plane of physical parameters.<br />27 Pages, 6 figures (with supplementary information 7 Pages)
- Subjects :
- Physics
Thermal equilibrium
Phase transition
Partition function (statistical mechanics)
Multidisciplinary
Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech)
Thermal fluctuations
FOS: Physical sciences
Thermodynamic system
Quantum evolution
Article
Singularity
Statistical physics
Complex plane
Condensed Matter - Statistical Mechanics
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Scientific Reports
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....1216323e88c5ddb1b9d10ee78df25c2f