Density, phase transitions

Wurlitzer A, Politsch E, Huebner S, Krueger P, Weygand M, Kjaer K, Hommes P, Nuyken O, Cevc G, Loesche M (2001) Conformation of polymer brushes at aqueous surfaces determined with X-ray and neutron reflectometry. 2. High-density phase transition of lipopolyoxazolines. Macromolecules 34 1334-1342... 

S. Chains in the S phase are also oriented normal to the surface, yet the unit cell is rectangular possibly because of restricted rotation. This structure is characterized as the smectic E or herringbone phase. Schofield and Rice [204] applied a lattice density functional theory to describe the second-order rotator (LS)-heiTingbone (S) phase transition. 

Statistical mechanical theory and computer simulations provide a link between the equation of state and the interatomic potential energy functions. A fluid-solid transition at high density has been inferred from computer simulations of hard spheres. A vapour-liquid phase transition also appears when an attractive component is present hr the interatomic potential (e.g. atoms interacting tlirough a Leimard-Jones potential) provided the temperature lies below T, the critical temperature for this transition. This is illustrated in figure A2.3.2 where the critical point is a point of inflexion of tire critical isothemr in the P - Vplane. 

Nellis W J, Holmes N C, Mitchell A C and Van Thiel M 1984 Phase transition in fluid nitrogen at high densities and temperatures Phys. Rev. Lett. 53 1661... 

The Maier-Saupe tlieory was developed to account for ordering in tlie smectic A phase by McMillan [71]. He allowed for tlie coupling of orientational order to tlie translational order, by introducing a translational order parameter which depends on an ensemble average of tlie first haniionic of tlie density modulation noniial to tlie layers as well as / i. This model can account for botli first- and second-order nematic-smectic A phase transitions, as observed experimentally. 

The transition from smectic A to smectic B phase is characterized by tire development of a sixfold modulation of density witliin tire smectic layers ( hexatic ordering), which can be seen from x-ray diffraction experiments where a sixfold symmetry of diffuse scattering appears. This sixfold symmetry reflects tire bond orientational order. An appropriate order parameter to describe tlie SmA-SmB phase transition is tlien [18,19 and 20]... 

Besides shear-induced phase transitions, Uquid-gas equilibria in confined phases have been extensively studied in recent years, both experimentally [149-155] and theoretically [156-163]. For example, using a volumetric technique, Thommes et al. [149,150] have measured the excess coverage T of SF in controlled pore glasses (CPG) as a function of T along subcritical isochoric paths in bulk SF. The experimental apparatus, fully described in Ref. 149, consists of a reference cell filled with pure SF and a sorption cell containing the adsorbent in thermodynamic equilibrium with bulk SF gas at a given initial temperature T,- of the fluid in both cells. The pressure P in the reference cell and the pressure difference AP between sorption and reference cell are measured. The density of (pure) SF at T, is calculated from P via an equation of state. 

Another example of phase transitions in two-dimensional systems with purely repulsive interaction is a system of hard discs (of diameter d) with particles of type A and particles of type B in volume V and interaction potential U U ri2) = oo for < 4,51 and zero otherwise, is the distance of two particles, j l, A, B] are their species and = d B = d, AB = d A- A/2). The total number of particles N = N A- Nb and the total volume V is fixed and thus the average density p = p d = Nd /V. Due to the additional repulsion between A and B type particles one can expect a phase separation into an -rich and a 5-rich fluid phase for large values of A > Ac. In a Gibbs ensemble Monte Carlo (GEMC) [192] simulation a system is simulated in two boxes with periodic boundary conditions, particles can be exchanged between the boxes and the volume of both boxes can... 

Freezing transitions have been examined in recent years by density functional methods [306-313]. Here we review the results [298] of a modification of the Ramakrishnan-Yussouff theory to the model fluid with Hamiltonian (Eq. (25)) a related study of phase transitions in a system of hard discs in two dimensions with Ising internal states which couple anti-ferromagnetically to their neighbors is shown in Ref. 304. First, a combined... 

In the inset of Fig. 9 we show the mean field frequency 0 = 0// as a function of density for T = 1. At this temperature the system undergoes a phase transition from a paramagnetic to a ferromagnetic fluid at a density whose mean field value is p mf = 0-4- For densities below this value we obtain 0 = cjq, which agrees with the frequency value of the low-order virial expansion (see Eq. (34)). For p > Pc,mF) increases with the density due to increase of the magnetization. 

Although Eqs. (33), (34), and especially (35), are useful they have a problem. They all predict that the hard sphere system is a fluid until = 1. This is beyond close packing and quite impossible. In fact, hard spheres undergo a first order phase transition to a solid phase at around pd 0.9. This has been estabhshed by simulations [3-5]. To a point, the BGY approximation has the advantage here. As is seen in Fig. 1, the BGY equation does predict that dp dp)j = 0 at high densities. However, the location of the transition is quite wrong. Another problem with the PY theory is that it can lead to negative values of g(r). This is a result of the linearization of y(r) - 1 that... 

Second-Order Integral Equations for Associating Fluids As mentioned above in Sec. II A, the second-order theory consists of simultaneous evaluation of the one-particle (density profile) and two-particle distribution functions. Consequently, the theory yields a much more detailed description of the interfacial phenomena. In the case of confined simple fluids, the PY2 and HNC2 approaches are able to describe surface phase transitions, such as wetting and layering transitions, in particular see, e.g.. Ref. 84. 

A from the surface the density is typically constant and equal to the bulk value. In strong unscreened electric fields several authors [137-140] report a phase transition towards a ferroelectric crystalline state in their simulations. However, it should be kept in mind that these systems, because of the absence of ionic screening, are rather unphysical in nature. 

Note that large density fluctuations are suppressed by construction in a random lattice model. In order to include them, one could simply simulate a mixture of hard disks with internal conformational degrees of freedom. Very simple models of this kind, where the conformational degrees of freedom affect only the size or the shape of the disks, have been studied by Fraser et al. [206]. They are found to exhibit a broad spectrum of possible phase transitions. 

An intrinsic surface is built up between both phases in coexistence at a first-order phase transition. For the hard sphere crystal-melt interface [51] density, pressure and stress profiles were calculated, showing that the transition from crystal to fluid occurs over a narrow range of only two to three crystal layers. Crystal growth rate constants of a Lennard-Jones (100) surface [52] were calculated from the fluctuations of interfaces. There is evidence for bcc ordering at the surface of a critical fee nucleus [53]. 

We are all familiar with the gas-liquid phase transition undergone by water. In such a transition, a plot of density versus temperature shows a distinct discontinuity at the critical temperature marking the transition point. There are many other common examples of similar phase transitions. 

Table 7.3 lists the four rules in this minimally-diluted rule-family, along with their corresponding iterative maps. Notice that since rules R, R2 and R3 do not have a linear term, / (p = 0) = 0 and mean-field-theory predicts a first-order phase transition. By first order we mean that the phase transition is discontinuous there is an abrupt, discontinuous change at a well defined critical probability Pc, at which the system suddenly goes from having poo = 0 as the only stable fixed point to having an asymptotic density Poo 7 0 as the only stable fixed point (see below). 

Ri does not show any phase transition. This should not be terribly surprising, since, in the deterministic limit, Ri exhibits either class 2 behavior (i.e. periodicity) or class 4 behavior (spatially separated propagating structures with an ill-defined statistical limit). The density p therefore has no well-defined statistical mean for p = 1 and the periodicity and/or propagating structures are rapidly destroyed (and thus p — 0) whenever p < 1. Moreover, from the above mean-field... 

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