Rigidity-induced critical points

Abstract

While classical theory of phase transitions deals with systems where shape variation is energetically neutral, the account of rigidity can lead to the emergence of new thermodynamic features. One of them is a special type of critical points that are characteristic of phase transitions specifically in solids. We develop a general theory of such rigidity-induced critical points and illustrate the results by analyzing in detail the case of an isotropic, geometrically nonlinear solid undergoing a volumetric phase transition at zero temperature.