On the Phase Transitions That Cannot Materialize

Abstract

The succession of suggested mechanisms of solid-state phase transitions - Second-order, Lambda, Martensitic, Displacive, Topological, Order-Disorder, Soft-mode, Incommensurate, Scaling and Quantum - are analyzed and explained why they cannot be realized in nature. All of them assume a cooperative structural rearrangement as opposed to the only real one which is simply a variant of the crystal growth. Like all kinds of crystal growth, a solid state phase transition proceeds by molecule-by-molecule building building the crystal of a different structure, while the surrounding original crystal is used as the building material.