Phase transitions and finite-size effects in integrable virial statistical models

Abstract

We analyze thermodynamic models for fluid systems in equilibrium based on a virial expansion of the internal energy in terms of the volume density. We prove that the models, formulated for finite-size systems with $N$ particles, are exactly solvable to any expansion order, as expectation values of physical observables (e.g., volume density) are determined from solutions to nonlinear C-integrable partial differential equations (PDEs) of hydrodynamic type. In the limit $N\to \infty$, phase transitions emerge as classical shock waves in the space of thermodynamic variables. Near critical points, we argue that the volume density exhibits a scaling behavior consistent with the Universality Conjecture in viscous transport PDEs. As an application, we employ our framework to nuclear and quark matter, constructing a global quantum chromodynamics (QCD) phase diagram that reveals critical points for the nuclear liquid-gas transition and the hadron gas-quark-gluon plasma transition. We demonstrate how finite-size effects smear critical signatures, implying their potential impact on the search for the QCD critical point.