Phase Transitions of Simple Systems

1. Front Matter

   Pages I-X

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2. Introduction

   1. Introduction

      Pages 1-4

3. Thermodynamics of Ensembles of Classical Particles

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 5-5

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   2. Excitations in Simple Atomic Ensembles

      Pages 7-19

   3. Structures of Ensembles of Interacting Particles

      Pages 21-37

   4. Thermodynamics of Dense Gases and Liquids

      Pages 39-50

   5. Clusters with Short-Range Interaction

      Pages 51-74

   6. Ensembles of Classical Particles with Repulsion

      Pages 75-95

4. Configurational Excitations and Aggregate States of Ensembles of Classical Particles

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 97-97

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   2. Configurational Excitation and Voids in Ensembles of Bound Classical Atoms

      Pages 99-119

   3. Configurational Cluster Excitation with Pairwise Interactions

      Pages 121-147

   4. Phase Transitions in Macroscopic Systems of Atoms

      Pages 149-162

   5. Melting of Clusters and Bulk Atomic Ensembles

      Pages 163-176

5. Dynamics of Configurational Excitations in Ensembles of Classical Particles

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 177-177

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   2. Coexistence of Cluster Phases

      Pages 179-198

   3. Glassy States of an Ensemble of Bound Atoms

      Pages 199-215

   4. Transport of Voids in Nucleation Processes

      Pages 217-230

   5. Conclusion and Summary

      Pages 231-232

6. Back Matter

   Pages 233-245

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Thermodynamic concepts of aggregate states and their phase transitions - veloped during the 19th Century and are now the basis of our contem- rary understanding of these phenomena. Thermodynamics gives an universal, macroscopic description of the equilibrium properties of phase transitions - dependent of the detailed nature of the substances. However understanding the nature of phase transitions at the microscopic level requires a di?erent approach, one that takes into account the speci?cs of the interparticle int- actions. In this book, we lay the groundwork that connects the microscopic phenomena underlying phase changes with the macroscopic picture, but in a somewhat restricted way. We deal only with systems in which electronic excitations are not important, only with atomic systems, and only with - mogeneous systems. We also restrict our analysis to systems in which only pairwise interactions need be included, and, in many parts of the treatment, to systems in which one need consider only the interactions between nearest neighbor atoms. In establishing these restrictions, we can be guided by the solid and liquid states of inert gases and the phase transitions between them, althoughthesubsequentanalysisisrelevantandapplicableforaseriesofother physical systems. To study the behavior of a system of many interacting identical par- cles, we work extensively with its potential energy surface (PES), a surface in a many-dimensional space whose independent variables are the monomer coordinates or some transformation thereof. A central property of any m- tidimensional PES is its large number of local minima.

• Glass-formers
• Nucleation
• Phase Transitions
• Phase changes
• Phase coexistence
• Structure-seekers
• cluster
• particles
• phase Transition
• thermodynamics
• fluid- and aerodynamics

• Department of Chemistry, University of Chicago^, Chicago, USA

  Stephen Berry

• Institute of High Temperatures, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russian Federation

  Boris Smirnov

R. Stephen Berry is James Franck Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus in the Chemistry Department at The University of Chicago. He has studied phase changes and phase equilibria for twenty years. He is a MacArthur Fellow and a Member of the National Academy of Sciences of the U.S.A., and has been author or coauthor of five books prior to this. He and his coauthor of this book have known each other for over 40 years, from the time both were working on atomic collision processes. They have been collaborating for about 10 years, in their studies of clusters and of phase transitions.

Boris M. Smirnov is a distinguished physicist who worked for many years at the Institute for Ball Lightning, prior to his joining the Institute for High Temperatures in Moscow.

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