Arguing on Entropic and Enthalpic First-Order Phase Transitions in Strongly Interacting Matter

The pattern of isentropes in the vicinity of a first-order phase transition is proposed as a key for a sub-classification. While the confinement-deconfinement transition, conjectured to set in beyond a critical end point in the QCD phase diagram, is often related to an entropic transition and the apparently settled gas-liquid transition in nuclear matter is an enthalphic transition, the conceivable local isentropes w.r.t. “incoming” or “outgoing” serve as another useful guide for discussing possible implications, both in the presumed hydrodynamical expansion stage of heavy-ion collisions and the core-collapse of supernova explosions. Examples, such as the quark-meson model and two-phase models, are shown to distinguish concisely the different transitions.

First-order quantum phase transition and entanglement in the Jaynes-Cummings model with a squeezed light

We study the quantum phase transition and entanglement in the Jaynes-Cummings model with squeezed light,utilize a special transformation method to obtain the analytical ground state of the model within the near-resonance regime,and numerically verify the validity of the analytical ground state.It is found that the ground state exhibits a first-order quantum phase transition at the critical point linearly induced by squeezed light,and the ground state entanglement reaches its maximum when the qubit-field coupling strength is large enough at the critical point.

Significantly enhanced thermal stability of HMX by phase-transition lysozyme coating

A new robust bio-inspired route by using lysozyme aqueous solution for surface modification on 1,3,5,7-tetranitro-1,3,5,7-tetrazocane(HMX)was described in this paper.HMX crystals were coated by in situ phase transition of lysozyme(PTL)molecules.The HMX decorated by PTL was characterized by SEM,XRD,FTIR and XPS,demonstrating a dense core-shell coating layer.The coverage of lysozyme on HMX crystal was calculated by the ratio of sulfur content.The surface coverage increased from 60.5% to 93.5% when the content of PTL was changed from 0.5 wt% to 2.0 wt%,indicating efficient coating.The thermal stability of HMX was investigated by in situ XRD and DSC.The thermal phase transition temperature of HMX(β to δ phase)was delayed by 42℃ with 2.0 wt% PTL coating,which prevented HMX from thermal damage and sensitivity by the effect of PTL coating.After heating at 215℃,large cracks appeared in the naked HMX crystal,while the PTL coated HMX still maintained intact,with the impact energy of HMX dropped dramatically from 5 J to 2 J.However,the impact energy of HMX with 1.0 wt% and 2.0 wt% coating content(HMX@PTL-1.0 and HMX@PTL-2.0)was unchanged(5 J).Present results potentially enable large-scale fabrication of polymorphic energetic materials with outstanding thermal stability by novel lysozyme coating.

Comparative study on phase transition behaviors of fractional molecular field theory and random-site Ising model

Fractional molecular field theory(FMFT)is a phenomenological theory that describes phase transitions in crystals with randomly distributed components,such as the relaxor-ferroelectrics and spin glasses.In order to verify the feasibility of this theory,this paper fits it to the Monte Carlo simulations of specific heat and susceptibility versus temperature of two-dimensional(2D)random-site Ising model(2D-RSIM).The results indicate that the FMFT deviates from the 2D-RSIM significantly.The main reason for the deviation is that the 2D-RSIM is a typical system of component random distribution,where the real order parameter is spatially heterogeneous and has no symmetry of space translation,but the basic assumption of FMFT means that the parameter is spatially uniform and has symmetry of space translation.

The Negative Thermal Expansion Property of NdMnO_(3) Based on Pores Effect and Phase Transition

A novel negative thermal expansion(NTE) material NdMnO_(3) was synthesized by solid-state method at 1 523 K. The crystal structure, phase transition, pores effect and negative expansion properties of NdMnO_(3) were investigated by variable temperature X-ray diffraction(XRD), scanning electron microscope(SEM) and variable temperature Raman spectra. The compound exhibits NTE properties in the orderly O' phase crystal structure. When the temperature is from 293 to 759 K, the ceramic NdMnO_(3) shows negative thermal expansion of-4.7×10^(-6)/K. As temperature increases, the ceramic NdMnO_(3) presents NTE property range from 759 to 1 007 K. The average linear expansion coefficient is-18.88×10^(-6)/K. The physical mechanism of NTE is discussed and clarified through experiments.

Triple points and phase transitions of D-dimensional dyonic Ad S black holes with quasitopological electromagnetism in Einstein–Gauss–Bonnet gravity

By considering the negative cosmological constant Λ as a thermodynamic pressure, we study the thermodynamics and phase transitions of the D-dimensional dyonic Ad S black holes(BHs) with quasitopological electromagnetism in Einstein–Gauss–Bonnet(EGB) gravity. The results indicate that the small/large BH phase transition that is similar to the van der Waals(vdW) liquid/gas phase transition always exists for any spacetime dimensions. Interestingly, we then find that this BH system exhibits a more complex phase structure in 6-dimensional case that is missed in other dimensions.Specifically, it shows for D = 6 that we observed the small/intermediate/large BH phase transitions in a specific parameter region with the triple point naturally appeared. Moreover, when the magnetic charge turned off, we still observed the small/intermediate/large BH phase transitions and triple point only in 6-dimensional spacetime, which is consistent with the previous results. However, for the dyonic Ad S BHs with quasitopological electromagnetism in Einstein–Born–Infeld(EBI) gravity, the novel phase structure composed of two separate coexistence curves observed by Li et al. [Phys. Rev. D105 104048(2022)] disappeared in EGB gravity. This implies that this novel phase structure is closely related to gravity theories, and seems to have nothing to do with the effect of quasitopological electromagnetism. In addition, it is also true that the critical exponents calculated near the critical points possess identical values as mean field theory. Finally, we conclude that these findings shall provide some deep insights into the intriguing thermodynamic properties of the dyonic Ad S BHs with quasitopological electromagnetism in EGB gravity.

Crystal structure,phase transitions,and thermodynamic properties of magnesium metavanadate(MgV_(2)O_(6))

As a promising anode material for magnesium ion rechargeable batteries,magnesium metavanadate(MgV_(2)O_(6))has attracted considerable research interest in recent years.A MgV_(2)O_(6)sample was synthesized via a facile solid-state reaction by multistep-firing stoichiometric mixtures of MgO and V2O5 powder under an air atmosphere.The solid-state phase transition fromα-MgV_(2)O_(6)toβ-MgV_(2)O_(6)occurred at 841 K and the enthalpy change was 4.37±0.04 kJ/mol.The endothermic effect at 1014 K and the enthalpy change was 26.54±0.26 kJ/mol,which is related to the incongruent melting ofβ-MgV_(2)O_(6).In situ XRD was performed to investigate phase transition of the as-prepared MgV_(2)O_(6)at high temperatures.The cell parameters obtained by Rietveld refinement indicated that it crystallizes in a monoclinic system with the C2/m space group,and the lattice parameters of a=9.280 A°,b=3.501 A°,c=6.731 A°,β=111.76°.The solid-state phase transition fromα-MgV_(2)O_(6)toβ-MgV_(2)O_(6)was further studied by thermal kinetics,indicating that this process is controlled first by a fibril-like mechanism and then by a spherulitic-type mechanism with an increasing heating rate.Additionally,the enthalpy change of MgV_(2)O_(6)at high temperatures was measured utilizing the drop calorimetry,heat capacity was calculated and given as:Cp=208.3+0.03583T-4809000T^(−2)(298-923 K)(J mol^(−1)K^(−1)),the high-temperature heat capacity can be used to calculate Gibbs free energy of MgV_(2)O_(6)at high temperatures.

Ascending phase of solar cycle 25 tilts the current El Nino-Southern oscillation transition

自2020年初夏,赤道太平洋地区出现拉尼娜现象并持续两年半多(以下简称2020拉尼娜),对其未来演变的预测引起了很多关注,考虑到11年太阳周期活动对热带太平洋SST异常可能存在锁相影响,本研究分析了当前太阳活动周(即第25太阳周(SC25))对目前热带太平洋ENSO现象未来演变的调节作用,基于历史太阳周的统计特征,作者对第25太阳周达到其最大值的时间提出三种可能的情景,并讨论了不同情景下的太阳活动对未来两年ENSO演变的可能影响,第25太阳周的持续上升阶段在一定程度上抑制了当前2023厄尔尼诺现象发展为超级事件.

First-order phase transition and unexpected rigid rotation mode in hybrid improper ferroelectric(La,Al)co-substituted Ca_(3)Ti_(2)O_(7) ceramics

Ca_(3)Ti_(2)O_(7) with Ruddlesden-Popper structure exhibits the largest polarization among the known hybrid improper ferroelectrics.However,the high Curie temperature impedes the thorough study of phase transition through dielectric characterization.According to the previous theoretical design rule,the Curie temperature can be suppressed by increasing the tolerance factor.So,in the present work,high-quality Ca_(3-x)LaxTi_(2-x)Al_(x)O_(7)(x=0.0,0.1,0.2,0.3)ceramics with increased tolerance factors were successfully prepared.The amplitude of oxygen octahedral tilt mode indeed decreases with increasing tolerance factors,leading to a degeneration of ferroelectric polarization.However,the unexpected rigid rotation mode causes the composition-invariable coercive fields.The Curie temperatures decrease linearly with increasing x and tolerance factors.The variable-temperature dielectric constant confirms first-order improper ferroelectric transitions in Ca_(3)Ti_(2)O_(7)-based ceramics.The results of variable temperature Xray diffraction reveal the coexistence of two-phases below Curie temperature.The present work confidently confirms the first-order improper ferroelectric transition in Ca_(3)Ti_(2)O_(7)-based ceramics by combining results of variable-temperature dielectric response and in-situ X-ray powder diffraction.

Renormalization group theory for temperature-driven first-order phase transitions in scalar models

We study the scaling and universal behavior of temperature-driven first-order phase transitions in scalar models. These transitions are found to exhibit rich phenomena, though they are controlled by a single complex-conjugate pair of imaginary fixed points of φ3 theory. Scaling theories and renormalization group theories are developed to account for the phenomena, and three universality classes with their own hysteresis exponents are found： a field-like thermal class, a partly thermal class, and a purely thermal class, designated, respectively, as Thermal Classes I, II, and III. The first two classes arise from the opposite limits of the scaling forms proposed and may cross over to each other depending on the temperature sweep rate. They are both described by a massless model and a purely massive model, both of which are equivalent and are derived from φ3 theory via symmetry. Thermal Class III characterizes the cooling transitions in the absence of applied external fields and is described by purely thermal models, which include cases in which the order parameters possess different symmetries and thus exhibit different universality classes. For the purely thermal models whose free energies contain odd-symmetry terms, Thermal Class III emerges only at the mean-field level and is identical to Thermal Class II. Fluctuations change the model into the other two models. Using the extant three- and two- loop results for the static and dynamic exponents for the Yang-Lee edge singularity, respectively, which falls into the same universality class as φ3 theory, we estimate the thermal hysteresis exponents of the various classes to the same precision. Comparisons with numerical results and experiments are briefly discussed.

Gravitational waves from cosmic strings after a first-order phase transition

We study the possibility of probing high scale phase transitions that are inaccessible by LIGO.Our study shows that the stochastic gravitational-wave radiation from cosmic strings that are formed after the first-order phase transition can be detected by space-based interferometers when the phase transition temperature is T_(n)~O(10^(8−11))GeV.

Energy budget of cosmological first-order phase transition in FLRW background

We study the hydrodynamics of bubble expansion in cosmological first-order phase transition in the Friedmann-Lema??treRobertson-Walker(FLRW) background with probe limit. Different from previous studies for fast first-order phase transition in flat background, we find that, for slow first-order phase transition in FLRW background with a given peculiar velocity of the bubble wall, the efficiency factor of energy transfer into bulk motion of thermal fluid is significantly reduced, thus decreasing the previously-thought dominated contribution from sound wave to the stochastic gravitational-wave background.

Renormalization-group theory of first-order phase transition dynamics in field-driven scalar model

通过吝啬地的近似， Gaussian 近似，不安扩大，和一个3理论的地理论上的重正常化组分析的详细研究，我们证明不稳定性修理了理论的点，和他们的联系不稳定性代表，与可伸缩和一阶的阶段转变在一个地驱动的分级的4模型展出的普遍性行为相当可能相关，在它的批评温度和近的 th 下面放大并且领先修正到可伸缩的 Finitetime 被考虑。我们也证明一阶的阶段转变的不稳定性代表 Yang 庇护边奇特等价于那些，并且采用后者改进我们前者的估计。结果与存在数字结果同意很好。

Unveiling the pressure-driven metal–semiconductor–metal transition in the doped TiS_(2)

Conventional theories expect that materials under pressure exhibit expanded valence and conduction bands,leading to increased electrical conductivity.Here,we report the electrical properties of the doped 1T-TiS_(2) under high pressure by electrical resistance investigations,synchrotron x-ray diffraction,Raman scattering and theoretical calculations.Up to 70 GPa,an unusual metal-semiconductor-metal transition occurs.Our first-principles calculations suggest that the observed anti-Wilson transition from metal to semiconductor at 17 GPa is due to the electron localization induced by the intercalated Ti atoms.This electron localization is attributed to the strengthened coupling between the doped Ti atoms and S atoms,and the Anderson localization arising from the disordered intercalation.At pressures exceeding 30.5 GPa,the doped TiS_(2) undergoes a re-metallization transition initiated by a crystal structure phase transition.We assign the most probable space group as P2_12_12_1.Our findings suggest that materials probably will eventually undergo the Wilson transition when subjected to sufficient pressure.

Pressure-induced phase transition and electronic structure evolution in layered semimetal HfTe_(2)

Motivated by the recent experimental work,the pressure-induced structural transition of well-known two-dimensional(2D)1T-Hf Te_(2)was investigated up to 50 GPa through the advanced CALYPSO structure search technique combined with the first-principles calculations.Our calculations suggested that the 1T-Hf Te_(2)will first transform to C2/m phase at 3.6 GPa with a volume reduction of 7.6%and then to P62m phase at 9.6 GPa with a volume collapse of 4.6%.The occurrences of 3D C2/m and P62m phases mainly originated from the enhanced Te-Te interlayer coupling and the drastic distortions of Hf-Te polyhedrons in P3m1 phase under compression.Concomitantly,the coordination number of Hf atoms increased from six in P3m1 to eight in C2/m and eventually to nine in P62m at elevated pressure.The metallic and semimetallic nature of C2/m and P62m phases were characterized,and the evidence of the reinforced covalent interactions of Te-Hf and Te-Te orbitals in these two novel high-pressure phases were manifested by the atom-projected electronic DOS and Bader charge.

Liquid–liquid phase transition in confined liquid titanium

We report the layering and liquid–liquid phase transition of liquid titanium confined between two parallel panel walls.Abnormal changes in the volume and the potential energy confirm the existence of the liquid–liquid phase transition of the liquid titanium. The typical feature of the liquid–liquid phase transition is layering, which is induced by the slit size,pressure and temperature. We highlight the fact that the slit size and pressure will determine the number of layers. In addition, with the change in the slit size, the density of the confined liquid expresses a fluctuating law. The phase diagram of the layering transition is drawn to clearly understand the layering. This study provides insights into the liquid–liquid phase transition of liquid metal in a confined space.

Topological phase transition in network spreading

This paper investigates information spreading from the perspective of topological phase transition.Firstly,a new hybrid network is constructed based on the small-world networks and scale-free networks.Secondly,the attention mechanism of online users in information spreading is studied from four aspects:social distance,individual influence,content richness,and individual activity,and a dynamic evolution model of connecting with spreading is designed.Eventually,numerical simulations are conducted in three types of networks to verify the validity of the proposed dynamic evolution model.The simulation results show that topological structure and node influence in different networks have undergone phase transition,which is consistent with the phenomenon that followers and individual influence in real social networks experience phase transition within a short period.The infection density of networks with the dynamic evolution rule changes faster and reaches higher values than that of networks without the dynamic evolution rule.Furthermore,the simulation results are compared with the real data,which shows that the infection density curve of the hybrid networks is closer to that of the real data than that of the small-world networks and scale-free networks,verifying the validity of the model proposed in this paper.

Structural phase transition and transport properties in topological material candidate NaZn_(4)As_(3)

We report a comprehensive study on a layered-structure compound of NaZn_(4)As_(3),which has been predicted to be an ideal topological semimetal(TSM) candidate.It is found that NaZn_(4)As_(3) undergoes a structural transformation from high temperature rhombohedral to a low temperature monoclinic phase.The electric resistivity exhibits a metal-to-insulatorlike transition at around 100 K,and then develops a plateau at low temperature,which might be related to the protected topologically conducting surface states.Our first-principles calculation confirms further that NaZn_(4)As_(3) is a topological insulator(TI) for both different phases rather than a previously proposed TSM.The Hall resistivity reveals that the hole carriers dominate the transport properties for the whole temperature range investigated.Furthermore,an obvious kink possibly associated to the structure transition has been detected in thermopower around ~ 170 K.The large thermopower and moderate κ indicate that NaZn_(4)As_(3) and/or its derivatives can provide a good platform for optimizing and studying the thermoelectric performance.

Machine learning potential for Ab Initio phase transitions of zirconia

Zirconia has been extensively used in aerospace,military,biomedical and industrial fields due to its unusual combination of high mechanical,electrical and thermal properties.However,the fundamental and critical phase transition process of zirconia has not been well studied because of its difficult first-order phase transition with formidable energy barrier.Here,we generated a machine learning interatomic potential with ab initio accuracy to discover the mechanism behind all kinds of phase transition of zirconia at ambient pressure.The machine learning potential precisely characterized atomic interactions among all zirconia allotropes and liquid zirconia in a wide temperature range.We realized the challenging reversible first-order monoclinic-tetragonal and cubicliquid phase transition processes with enhanced sampling techniques.From the thermodynamic information,we gave a better understanding of the thermal hysteresis phenomenon in martensitic monoclinic-tetragonal transition.The phase diagram of zirconia from our machine learning potential based molecular dynamics simulations corresponded well with experimental results.

A thermal conductivity switch via the reversible 2H–1T′phase transition in monolayer MoTe_(2)

The two-dimensional(2D)material-based thermal switch is attracting attention due to its novel applications,such as energy conversion and thermal management,in nanoscale devices.In this paper,we observed that the reversible 2H–1T′phase transition in MoTe_(2)is associated with about a fourfold/tenfold change in thermal conductivity along the X/Y direction by using first-principles calculations.This phenomenon can be profoundly understood by comparing the Mo–Te bonding strength between the two phases.The 2H-MoTe_(2)has one stronger bonding type,while 1T′-MoTe_(2)has three weaker types of bonds,suggesting bonding inhomogeneity in 1T′-MoTe_(2).Meanwhile,the bonding inhomogeneity can induce more scattering of vibration modes.The weaker bonding indicates a softer structure,resulting in lower phonon group velocity,a shorter phonon relaxation lifetime and larger Gr¨uneisen constants.The impact caused by the 2H to 1T′phase transition in MoTe_(2)hinders the propagation of phonons,thereby reducing thermal conductivity.Our study describes the possibility for the provision of the MoTe_(2)-based controllable and reversible thermal switch device.