On the nonexistence of a liquid-gas critical point and the existence of a supercritical mesophase

TL;DR

This paper proposes a new thermodynamic framework for gas-liquid criticality, showing no critical point at the critical temperature and identifying a supercritical mesophase above certain temperatures.

Contribution

It introduces a novel description of criticality based on percolation transitions, challenging traditional van der Waals and mean-field theories.

Findings

No critical point at the critical temperature.

Existence of a supercritical mesophase.

Critical states characterized by constant chemical potential.

Abstract

We find a thermodynamic description of gas-liquid criticality that is different from van der Waals and mean-field theories. At the critical temperature there is no critical point; a liquid phase coexists with a vapor phase with densities determined by an intersection of 2nd-order percolation transition loci. There is a line of critical states of constant chemical potential at temperatures above which there exists a supercritical mesophase, and below which there is the familiar two-phase liquid-vapor coexistence region.