Solvent-induced symmetry breaking: varying solvent strength.
The triiodide ion is an example of a system where symmetry breaking may be induced by a solvent. The Landau free energy is expected to have a similar form to that for the mean field Ising model, but with solvent strength rather than temperature as the control parameter determining whether there is symmetry breaking. In order to examine the extent of anomalous behavior near the critical point we have studied the properties of the ion in a solvent based on a model for water with charges scaled by a factor lambda . As lambda is increased from zero the solvent strength increases and the system changes from one with no symmetry breaking to one with strong symmetry breaking. The Shannon entropy as a function of lambda shows only a weak maximum near the critical value of lambda= lambda(c) , while the susceptibility has no anomalous behavior. We examine a simple model and show that anomalies near the critical point would increase as the temperature decreases, but divergences associated with a second order phase transition would only be seen in the limit of zero temperature.
Zhang
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FS
Institute of Low Energy Nuclear Physics, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China.
Lynden-Bell
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RM