Quantum thermodynamics at critical points during melting and solidification processes

TL;DR

This paper investigates finite-temperature quantum phase transitions during melting and solidification, revealing that such transitions are more general than classical thermal phase transitions and can occur at high temperatures due to quantum fluctuations.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of finite-temperature continuous quantum phase transition (CTQPT) during melting and solidification, extending the understanding of phase transitions beyond classical first-order types.

Findings

Existence of CTQPT at critical points during melting and solidification.

Quantum fluctuations driven by thermal energy can induce phase transitions at high temperatures.

Derived thermodynamic quantities using ionization energy theory and renormalization group methods.

Abstract

We systematically explore and show the existence of finite-temperature continuous quantum phase transition (CTQPT) at a critical point, namely, during solidification or melting such that the first-order thermal phase transition is a special case within CTQPT. Infact, CTQPT is related to chemical reaction where quantum fluctuation (due to wavefunction transformation) is caused by thermal energy and it can occur maximally for temperatures much higher than zero Kelvin. To extract the quantity related to CTQPT, we use the ionization energy theory and the energy-level spacing renormalization group method to derive the energy-level spacing entropy, renormalized Bose-Einstein distribution and the time-dependent specific heat capacity. This work unambiguously shows that the quantum phase transition applies for any finite temperatures.