Geometric Phase Transitions

Abstract

A model in statistical mechanics, characterised by the corresponding Gibbs measure, is a subset of the totality of probability distributions on the phase space. The shape of this subset, i.e., the geometry, then plays an important role in statistical analysis of the model. It is known that this subset has the structure of a manifold equipped with a Riemannian metric, given by the Fisher information matrix. Invariant quantities such as thermodynamic curvature have been studied extensively in the literature, although a satisfactory physical interpretation of the geometry has not hitherto been established. In this article, we investigate the thermodynamic curvature for one and two dimensional Ising models and report the existence of a geometric phase transition associated with a change in the signature of the curvature. This transition is of a continuous type, and exists for finite systems. The effect may be tested in principle by mesoscopic scale experiments.