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Comment on "First-order phase transitions: equivalence between bimodalities and the Yang-Lee theorem"

Hugo Touchette
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Abstract

I discuss the validity of a result put forward recently by Chomaz and Gulminelli [Physica A 330 (2003) 451] concerning the equivalence of two definitions of first-order phase transitions. I show that distributions of zeros of the partition function fulfilling the conditions of the Yang-Lee Theorem are not necessarily associated with nonconcave microcanonical entropy functions or, equivalently, with canonical distributions of the mean energy having a bimodal shape, as claimed by Chomaz and Gulminelli. In fact, such distributions of zeros can also be associated with concave entropy functions and unimodal canonical distributions having affine parts. A simple example is worked out in detail to illustrate this subtlety.

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Hugo Touchette. 2005-03-02. Comment on "First-order phase transitions: equivalence between bimodalities and the Yang-Lee theorem". https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physa.2005.05.098

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