An exactly solvable model for first- and second-order transitions

Abstract

The possibility of an exact analytical description of first-order and second-order transitions is demonstrated using a specific microscopic model. Predictions using the exactly calculated partition function are compared with those based on the Landau and Yang–Lee approaches. The model employed is an adsorbed polymer chain with an arbitrary number of links and an external force applied to its end, for which the variation of the partition function with the adsorption interaction parameter and the magnitude of the applied force is calculated. In the thermodynamic limit, the system has one isotropic and two anisotropic, ordered phases, each of which is characterized by two order parameters and between which first-order and second-order transitions occur and a bicritical point exists. The Landau free energy is found exactly as a function of each order parameter separately and, near the bicritical point, as a function of both of them simultaneously. An exact analytical formula is found for the distribution of the complex zeros of the partition function in first-order and second-order phase transitions. Hypotheses concerning the way in which the free energy and the positions of the complex zeros scale with the number of particles N in the system are verified.