Open AccessSystems with negative specific heat
Author(s) -
Walter Thirring
Publication year - 1970
Publication title -
zeitschrift für physik a hadrons and nuclei
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1431-5831
pISSN - 0939-7922
DOI - 10.1007/bf01403177
Subject(s) - instability , phase transition , physics , specific heat , statistical physics , thermal , supernova , transition (genetics) , thermodynamics , chemical physics , chemistry , quantum mechanics , biochemistry , gene
Some systems for which the binding energy increases more rapidly than linearly with the number of particles, are shown to exhibit negative specific heatc for some energies. In thermal contact with larger systems,c < 0 creates an instability, and in the canonical ensemble one sees only a phase transition. It is argued that supernovae are, in essence, a phase transition of this origin.
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