Related papers: When topology triggers a phase transition
The relation between thermodynamic phase transitions in classical systems and topology changes in their configuration space is discussed for a one-dimensional, analytically tractable solid-on-solid model. The topology of a certain family of…
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…
Based on the study of saddle points of the potential energy landscapes of generic classical many-particle systems, we present a necessary criterion for the occurrence of a thermodynamic phase transition. Remarkably, this criterion imposes…
The topological theory of phase transitions was proposed on the basis of different arguments, the most important of which are: a direct evidence of the relation between topology and phase transitions for some exactly solvable models; an…
The relation between thermodynamic phase transitions in classical systems and topological changes in their configuration space is discussed for two physical models and contains the first exact analytic computation of a topologic invariant…
The elsewhere surmised topological origin of phase transitions is given here new important evidence through the analytic study of an exactly solvable model for which both topology and thermodynamics are worked out. The model is a mean-field…
The thermodynamics and topology of mean-field models with 2+k body interaction terms (generalizing XY model) are derived. Focusing on two particular cases (2+4 and 2+6 body interaction terms), a comparison between thermodynamic (phase…
Certain geometric properties of submanifolds of configuration space are numerically investigated for classical lattice phi^4 models in one and two dimensions. Peculiar behaviors of the computed geometric quantities are found only in the…
The topological theory of phase transitions has its strong point in two theorems proving that, for a wide class of physical systems, phase transitions necessarily stem from topological changes of some submanifolds of configuration space. It…
We show that thermodynamics can be formulated naturally from the intrinsic geometry of phase space alone-without postulating an ensemble, which instead emerges from the geometric structure itself. Within this formulation, phase transitions…
Equilibrium phase transitions usually emerge from the microscopic behavior of many-body systems and are associated to interesting phenomena such as the generation of long-range order and spontaneous symmetry breaking. They can be defined…
Equilibrium phase transitions may be defined as nonanalytic points of thermodynamic functions, e.g., of the canonical free energy. Given a certain physical system, it is of interest to understand which properties of the system account for…
We address the question of the quantitative relationship between thermodynamic phase transitions and topological changes in the potential energy manifold analyzing two classes of one dimensional models, the Burkhardt solid-on-solid model…
A new point of view about the deep origin of thermodynamic phase transitions is sketched. The main idea is to link the appearance of phase transitions to some major topology change of suitable submanifolds of phase space instead of linking…
In this first paper, we demonstrate a theorem that establishes a first step toward proving a necessary topological condition for the occurrence of first or second order phase transitions: we prove that the topology of certain submanifolds…
The stationary points of the potential energy function V are studied for the \phi^4 model on a two-dimensional square lattice with nearest-neighbor interactions. On the basis of analytical and numerical results, we explore the relation of…
We argue that the phase transition in the mean-field XY model is related to a particular change in the topology of its configuration space. The nature of this topological transition can be discussed on the basis of elementary Morse theory…
We will study a class of system composed of interacting unicyclic machines placed in contact with a hot and cold thermal baths subjected to a non-conservative driving worksource. Despite their simplicity, these models showcase an intricate…
We study topological transitions in one dimensional superconductors that can harbor multiple edge Majorana bound states protected by chiral symmetry. The chiral symmetry arises due to the structure of the internal spin degrees of freedom of…
As phenomena that necessarily emerge from the collective behavior of interacting particles, phase transitions continue to be difficult to predict using statistical thermodynamics. A recent proposal called the topological hypothesis suggests…