Nature Communications (Aug 2016)

A possible four-phase coexistence in a single-component system

  • Kenji Akahane,
  • John Russo,
  • Hajime Tanaka

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms12599
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 7, no. 1
pp. 1 – 8

Abstract

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Gibbs' phase rule states that the maximum number of coexisting phases in a one-component system, and in absence of external fields, is three. Here, the authors show that directly controlling the Hamiltonian allows the extension of this rule to four phases.