Bachmann, Michael

Title: Hierarchical Subphase Transitions in Molecular First-Order Nucleation Processes
Author: Michael Bachmann
Affiliation: Soft Matter Systems Research Group, Institut fuer Festkoerperforschung (IFF-2), Germany
Abstract:
Thermodynamic transitions in nucleation processes of finite systems often exhibit an interesting first-order-like signature, represented by a convex region of the microcanonical entropy. This is conveyed to the caloric temperature which in the transition region possesses a little intuitive behavior: With increasing energy, the system gets colder. Independently of the physical interpretation of this "backbending effect", its characteristic change in monotony not only enables a systematic and quantitative analysis of the transition. It even allows to reduce the nucleation process to a hierarchical sequence of subphase transitions. We discuss this in detail for the exemplified aggregation transition of a system consisting of a few polymers.