Thermodynamics of structure-forming systems

Jan Korbel, Simon David Lindner, Rudolf Hanel and Stefan Thurner
Additional contact information
Jan Korbel: Medical University of Vienna
Simon David Lindner: Medical University of Vienna
Rudolf Hanel: Medical University of Vienna

Nature Communications, 2021, vol. 12, issue 1, 1-8

Abstract: Abstract Structure-forming systems are ubiquitous in nature, ranging from atoms building molecules to self-assembly of colloidal amphibolic particles. The understanding of the underlying thermodynamics of such systems remains an important problem. Here, we derive the entropy for structure-forming systems that differs from Boltzmann-Gibbs entropy by a term that explicitly captures clustered states. For large systems and low concentrations the approach is equivalent to the grand-canonical ensemble; for small systems we find significant deviations. We derive the detailed fluctuation theorem and Crooks’ work fluctuation theorem for structure-forming systems. The connection to the theory of particle self-assembly is discussed. We apply the results to several physical systems. We present the phase diagram for patchy particles described by the Kern-Frenkel potential. We show that the Curie-Weiss model with molecule structures exhibits a first-order phase transition.

Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-21272-7 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:12:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-021-21272-7

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-21272-7

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().