Comment on "Explaining the specific heat of liquids based on instantaneous normal modes"

Abstract

In a recent paper (Phys. Rev. E {\bf 104}, 014103 (2021) ) M. Baggioli and A. Zaccone formulate a theoretical description of the specific heat of liquids by using Debye's expression for the specific heat of solids and inserting a density of states (DOS) which they claim to represent the instantaneous-normal-mode (INM) spectrum of a liquid. However, the quantum-mechanical procedure of Debye cannot be used for a classical liquid and the authors' formula for the INM spectrum does not represent the known INM spectra of simple liquids. Furthermore, the derivation of this formula from their model equation of motion is mathematically in error. Finally experimental test of the teory for the specific heat of {\it liquids} is performed by fitting the data of {\it supercritical fluids}. \new{To our opinion,} these and a lot of other inconsistencies render this work not suitable for studying the specific heat of liquids.

arXiv comment3 pages, 1 figure

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• Explaining the specific heat of liquids based on instantaneous normal modes
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Cited by in corpus (2)

• Generalized Rosenfeld-Tarazona scaling and high-density specific heat of simple liquids
• Vibrational model of entropy in dense two-dimensional fluids