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Phase Transitions

Phase Transitions

A phase transition is the process in which a substance changes from one state of matter to another, like from a solid to a liquid, liquid to gas, or vice versa, at a specific temperature and under given pressure conditions. This change is spontaneous and is affected by alterations in temperature and pressure. These parameters impact the strength of the forces between molecules (intermolecular forces) in the substance.During a phase transition, both the initial and final phases of the substance...

Phase Transitions

Phase Transitions

Whether solid, liquid, or gas, a substance's state depends on the order and arrangement of its particles (atoms, molecules, or ions). Particles in the solid pack closely together, generally in a pattern. The particles vibrate about their fixed positions but do not move or squeeze past their neighbors. In liquids, although the particles are closely spaced, they are randomly arranged. The position of the particles are not fixed—that is, they are free to move past their neighbors to occupy...

Phase Transitions: Melting and Freezing

Phase Transitions: Melting and Freezing

Heating a crystalline solid increases the average energy of its atoms, molecules, or ions, and the solid gets hotter. At some point, the added energy becomes large enough to partially overcome the forces holding the molecules or ions of the solid in their fixed positions, and the solid begins the process of transitioning to the liquid state or melting. At this point, the temperature of the solid stops rising, despite the continual input of heat, and it remains constant until all of the solid is...

Phase Transitions: Vaporization and Condensation

Phase Transitions: Vaporization and Condensation

The physical form of a substance changes on changing its temperature. For example, raising the temperature of a liquid causes the liquid to vaporize (convert into vapor). The process is called vaporization—a surface phenomenon. Vaporization occurs when the thermal motion of the molecules overcome the intermolecular forces, and the molecules (at the surface) escape into the gaseous state. When a liquid vaporizes in a closed container, gas molecules cannot escape. As these gas phase molecules...

Entropy Changes Accompanying Specific Processes

Entropy Changes Accompanying Specific Processes

Entropy, a measure of disorder in a system, changes during phase transitions like freezing or boiling. At the transition temperature Ttrs, where two phases are in equilibrium, the phase transition is a reversible process. The entropy change can be calculated from a substance's enthalpy of transition using the equation ΔStrs = ΔtrsH /Ttrs.When a perfect gas expands isothermally from one volume to another, entropy increases logarithmically with volume. Conversely, isothermal compression results...

Transition State Theory

Transition State Theory

Transition-state theory, also known as activated-complex theory, provides a molecular-level explanation of reaction rates in both gas-phase and solution-phase reactions. It extends earlier kinetic models by considering the formation of a short-lived, high-energy configuration during a reaction.The progress of a chemical reaction can be represented using a reaction profile, which plots potential energy against the reaction coordinate. As two reactant molecules approach one another, their...

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Scalable Quantum Integrated Circuits on Superconducting Two-Dimensional Electron Gas Platform

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Dynamical quantum phase transitions in the transverse-field Ising model.

M Heyl¹, A Polkovnikov, S Kehrein

¹Department of Physics, Arnold Sommerfeld Center for Theoretical Physics, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Theresienstrasse 37, 80333 Munich, Germany.

Physical Review Letters

|April 16, 2013

Summary

Researchers discovered dynamical phase transitions in quantum systems, analogous to temperature-driven phase transitions. These transitions exhibit nonanalytic behavior at a critical time, closely linking equilibrium and dynamical quantum phase transitions.

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Area of Science:

Quantum physics
Statistical mechanics

Background:

Phase transitions signify abrupt property changes in large systems.
Temperature-driven phase transitions involve nonanalytic free energy density at critical temperatures.

Purpose of the Study:

To explore dynamical phase transitions in real-time quantum system evolution.
To investigate the analogy between equilibrium and dynamical phase transitions.

Main Methods:

Analysis of the transverse-field Ising model.
Studying real-time evolution of quantum systems.

Main Results:

Identified nonanalytic behavior in quantum systems at a critical time, termed dynamical phase transitions.
Demonstrated a close relationship between equilibrium quantum phase transitions and dynamical phase transitions.

Conclusions:

Dynamical phase transitions offer a new perspective on quantum system behavior.
The transverse-field Ising model serves as a key example for understanding these phenomena.