title: Probing the existence of phase transitions in one-dimensional fluids of penetrable particles.
abstract: Phase transitions in one-dimensional classical fluids are usually ruled out by using van Hove's theorem. A way to circumvent the conclusions of the theorem is to consider an interparticle potential that is everywhere bounded. Such is the case of, e.g., the generalized exponential model of index 4 (GEM-4 potential), which in three dimensions gives a reasonable description of the effective repulsion between flexible dendrimers in a solution. An extensive Monte Carlo simulation of the one-dimensional GEM-4 model [S. Prestipino, Phys. Rev. E 90, 042306 (2014)] has recently provided evidence of an infinite sequence of low-temperature cluster phases, however, also suggesting that upon pushing the simulation forward what seemed a true transition may eventually prove to be only a sharp crossover. We hereby investigate this problem theoretically by use of three different and increasingly sophisticated approaches (i.e., a mean-field theory, the transfer matrix of a lattice model of clusters, and the exact treatment of a system of point clusters in the continuum) to conclude that the alleged transitions of the one-dimensional GEM-4 system are likely just crossovers.
authors.affiliation: Università degli Studi di Messina, Dipartimento di Fisica e di Scienze della Terra, Contrada Papardo, I-98166 Messina, Italy.|CNR-IPCF, Viale F. Stagno d'Alcontres 37, I-98158 Messina, Italy.
authors.forename: Santi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Prestipino
authors.affiliation: Università Ca' Foscari Venezia, Dipartimento di Scienze Molecolari e Nanosistemi, S. Marta DD 2137, I-30123 Venezia, Italy.
authors.forename: Domenico
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gazzillo
authors.affiliation: Università Ca' Foscari Venezia, Dipartimento di Scienze Molecolari e Nanosistemi, S. Marta DD 2137, I-30123 Venezia, Italy.
authors.forename: Nicola
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Tasinato