Second-order phase transitions, L. Landau and his successors

Details Second-order phase transitions, L. Landau and his successors Second-order phase transitions, L. Landau and his successors

2011-02-05

arxiv.org/abs/1102.1085v1

Physics

General Physics

Based on the material published in Fundamentals of Solid-State Phase Transitions, Ferromagnetism and Ferroelectricity, 2nd Ed.

Scientific paper

There are only two ways for solid-state phase transitions to be compliant with thermodynamics: emerging of infinitesimal quantity of the new phase, or infinitesimal "qualitative" change occurring uniformly throughout the bulk at a time. The suggested theories of phase transitions are checked here for that compliance and in historical perspective. While introducing the theory of "continuous" second-order phase transitions, L. Landau claimed that they "may also exist" along with the majority of first order phase transitions, the latter being "discontinuous", displaying "jumps" of their physical properties; the fundamental differences between the two types were specified. But his theoretical successors disregarded these irreconcilable differences, incorrectly presenting all phase transitions as a cooperative phenomenon treatable by statistical mechanics. In the meantime, evidence has been mounted that all phase transitions have a nucleation-and-growth mechanism, thus making the above classification unneeded.

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