Fragmentation phase transition in atomic clusters I --- Microcanonical thermodynamics

Abstract

Here we first develop the thermodynamics of microcanonical phase transitions of first and second order in systems which are thermodynamically stable in the sense of van Hove. We show how both kinds of phase transitions can unambiguously be identified in relatively small isolated systems of $\sim 100$ atoms by the shape of the microcanonical caloric equation of state $<T(E/N)>$ I.e. within microcanonical thermodynamics one does not need to go to the thermodynamic limit in order to identify phase transitions. In contrast to ordinary (canonical) thermodynamics of the bulk microcanonical thermodynamics (MT) gives an insight into the coexistence region. The essential three parameters which identify the transition to be of first order, the transition temperature $T_{tr}$, the latent heat $q_{lat}$, and the interphase surface entropy $\Delta s_{surf}$ can very well be determined in relatively small systems like clusters by MT. The phase transition towards fragmentation is introduced. The general features of MT as applied to the fragmentation of atomic clusters are discussed. The similarities and differences to the boiling of macrosystems are pointed out.

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References in corpus (5)

• Fragmentation phase transition in atomic clusters I --- Microcanonical thermodynamics
• Fragmentation Phase Transition in Atomic Clusters II - Coulomb Explosion of Metal Clusters -
• Fragmentation Phase Transition in Atomic Clusters II -----Symmetry of Fission of Metal Clusters----
• On a trivial aspect of canonical specific heat scaling
• Microcanonical Thermodynamics, ``Fragmentation Phase Transition'',and the Topology of the N-body Phase Space

Cited by in corpus (11)

• Negative heat capacity in the critical region of nuclear fragmentation: an experimental evidence of the liquid-gas phase transition
• Classification of phase transitions in small systems
• The Origins of Phase Transitions in Small Systems
• Fragmentation phase transition in atomic clusters I --- Microcanonical thermodynamics
• Fragmentation Phase Transition in Atomic Clusters II - Coulomb Explosion of Metal Clusters -
• Theoretical investigation of finite size effects at DNA melting
• Effect of angular momentum on equilibrium properties of a self-gravitating system
• Fragmentation Phase Transition in Atomic Clusters II -----Symmetry of Fission of Metal Clusters----
• On the fragmentation of multiply charged sodium clusters
• Phase Transitions Without Thermodynamic Limit,The Crucial Rôle of Possible and Impossible Fluctuations, The Treatment of Inhomogeneous Scenaria in the Microcanonical Ensemble
• Consistency of Microcanonical and Canonical Finite-Size Scaling