Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 30, 2026

An Analog Macroscopic Technique for Studying Molecular Hydrodynamic Processes in Dense Gases and Liquids
Published on: December 4, 2017
Nonanalyticities of thermodynamic functions in finite noninteracting Bose gases within an exact microcanonical
1State Key Laboratory of Surface Physics and Department of Physics, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
Abstract:
Within an exact microcanonical (MC) ensemble, we study the nonanalyticities of thermodynamic functions research in finite noninteracting Bose gases in traps. The results show that there exists a rich oscillatory behavior of MC thermodynamical quantities as a function of a system's total energy E (e.g., nonmonotonous temperature, nonanalytic and negative specific heats, and microscopic phase transitions). The origin of these nonanalyticities comes directly from the inverted curvature entropy S(E) with respect to E and the behaviors are different in different trap geometries, boundary conditions, and energy spectrum configurations. Contrary to the usual grandcanonical and canonical results, there exists Bose condensation and the nonanalyticities in the two-dimensional finite noninteracting Bose systems with different traps. We also discuss the critical temperature dependence on the particle number N with different ensembles, traps, and boundary conditions. In large enough N, almost all the results of the thermodynamical quantities become smooth, which are similar to the usual canonical behaviors. We emphasize the finite-size effects on the MC entropy change, which should, in principle, be observable in suitably designed experiments of the small systems.
Related Concept Videos
Absolute Entropies and the Third Law of Thermodynamics
Third Law of Thermodynamics
Real Gases: Effects of Intermolecular Forces and Molecular Volume Deriving Van der Waals Equation
Entropy
Entropy
When an ideal gas expands isothermally, the disorder in the gas increases. From the molecular perspective, the gas molecules have more volume to move around in.
Consider an infinitesimal step in the expansion, which...
Deviation from Ideal Behaviour

