2.1. Continuous Phase Transitions in 6-Fold Symmetry Systems: The Ramsey Approach
Consider the 2D physical system built of the 6-fold symmetric planar primitive cells, such as that depicted in
Figure 1. The vertices of the system may be atoms [
20], molecules [
21], electrical [
22] or magnetic dipoles [
23], colloidal particles or other interacting physical entities [
22,
23]. The vertices are numbered
in the scheme, shown in
Figure 1. The edges of the cells, in turn, represent interactions/chemical bonds between atoms, molecules, dipoles or colloidal particles [
22,
23,
24,
25,
26]. Now we make a suggestion enabling the use of the Ramsey approach, namely we adopt that two kinds of interactions between the vertices are possible, labeled in the text
-interactions (colored in
Figure 1 with red) and
-interactions (colored in
Figure 1 with green). These interactions may be repulsions (
α-interactions) or attractions (
-interactions) [
26], or it is also possible that differently colored links represent various but distinct kinds of chemical interactions/bonds [
27]. The Ramsey Theory is insensitive to the physical nature of the interactions; it demands the clear distinction between them only [
11,
12,
13,
14]. We also adopt the initial 6-fold rotational symmetry for the system of interacting entities, depicted in
Figure 1. The interacting entities (atoms, molecules, etc.) within our approach are seen as the vertices of the graph, and interactions/chemical bonds between this entities are considered as the edges/links of the graph. We adopt, that the vertices and edges/links of system presented in
Figure 1 form the complete graph. Thus, the Ramsey approach to the analysis of the graph becomes possible. Let us address the situation, when
red links represent attractions, and
green links, in turn, – repulsion; the total energy of the system, depicted in
Figure 1 is given by:
where
and
are the moduli of energies of the
-link and
link correspondingly.
Two kinds of interactions act between the vertices are possible, namely /attractions (colored with green) and interactions/repulsions (colored with red). The interactions/chemical bonds are represented by the edges/links of the graph.
The Ramsey Theory states that within the complete graph built of six vertices and two-colored links, at least one monochromatic triangle should be necessarily present [
11,
12,
13,
14]. Let us take a close look at
Figure 1: indeed, the triangles “
236”, “
136”, “
356”, “
346” and “
246” are red-colored. This observation immediately follows from the fact that the Ramsey number
No monochromatic green-colored triangle is present in
Figure 1. From the pure physical point of view, it is important that the monochromatic triangles representing repulsions or alternatively attractions are unstable [
24].
Now let us destroy continuously the six-fold initial symmetry of the primitive cell, shown in
Figure 1, under keeping the total energy of the primitive cell constant. The suggested procedure corresponds to the second-order phase transition. We re-color a pair of the links in every step, as shown in
Figure 2, namely: at the first step we change the green link “12” into the red one, and simultaneously we switch red link “13” into the green one, and afterwards, we change the green link “56” into the red one, and red link “36” into the green one. The total energy of the system at every step is conserved:
indeed the number of green and red links is kept untouched at every step (the procedure may be continued). However, the six-fold symmetry of the system is already destroyed at the first step. The procedure may be continued under continuous breaking of the symmetry of the system, under conservation of its total energy. The initial 6-fold symmetry of the graph will not be restored; thus, an inverse symmetrical complete graph in which green links will be preplaced by red ones and vice versa never will be attained [
28], due to the fact, that the initial numbers of red and links are not equal. Thus, the suggested procedure of re-coloring of the initial graph, leading to the continuous change in its symmetry occurs under the constant energy, and corresponds to the necessary condition of the second order phase transition (the latent heat of the transition is zero) [
29,
30].
When the links correspond to attraction/repulsion interactions, the Ramsey Theory predicts inevitable appearance of the unstable triangles in the complete graph and they indeed are recognized in
Figure 2B,C. The green (
) monochromatic triangle is already recognized in
Figure 2C.
Two kinds of interactions act between the vertices, repulsions are colored with green and attractions interactions are colored with red. B. Breaking of symmetry of the system is depicted. Green link “12” is converted into the red one, and red link “13” is converted into the green one. C. The symmetry is continuously broken: the green link “56” is converted into the green one and red link “36” is converted into the green one. Arrow indicates the temporal evolution of the system.
Now let us quantify the suggested process of the symmetry breaking. It may be done with the “order parameter” (i.e., degree of ordering), introduced in the Landau theory of the second order phase transitions [
29]. Let us re-define the order parameter
in a spirit of the Ramsey theory, keeping the general Landau approach untouched. Parameter
is defined now in such a way that it is zero in a disordered phase and takes various positive and negative values in patterns with various degrees of ordering.
where
and
are probabilities of finding
and
links at any given location link in the 2D cell. The “order parameter” is zero in a completely disordered graph, and takes various positive or negative values in the complete graphs with various degree of ordering [
29]. Parameter
defined according to Eq. 2 resembles that introduced in the classical works by Landau for quantification of the second order transitions; however, this resemblance is superficial. The degree of ordering
introduced with Eq. 1 quantifies ordering of links/interactions between entities constituting the 2D lattice; whereas, the “Landau degree of order” quantifies the symmetry breaking via variation of spatial locations of these entities. And, it seems to the authors, that the definition of the degree of ordering with Eq. 2 is more physically justified (at least for some of phase transitions, to be discussed below). Indeed, physical interactions between physical entities, rather than their spatial locations govern the phase transition. Consider the second order phase transition in the dipole-dipole system [
31]. In this case, the same location of the centers of mass of interacting electrical or magnetic dipoles may correspond to both attraction and repulsion, which are switched one to another under rotation of the dipoles [
32]. Thus, it looks more reasonable to attribute the second order phase transitions to the breaking of symmetry of interactions between particles and not to the spatial location of the particles themselves.
Following Landau, the thermodynamic potential/Gibbs free energy
may be seen as a function of the order parameter
. The continuity of the second order phase transitions implies that the degree of ordering
takes infinitesimal values in the vicinity of the transition point [
29]. According to the Landau theory, the Taylor expansion of the free energy of the system is given by Eq. 3:
where
and
in the symmetrical phase and
in the non-symmetrical phase,
[
29]. Let us emphasize that now
is supplied by Eq.2. We adopt Eq. 4 for the thermodynamic states in the vicinity of phase transitions:
where
is the temperature of the phase transition,
[
29]. This expansion yields for the constant pressure thermal capacity of the non-symmetrical phase:
In the symmetrical phase we have
; due to the fact that
; hence, thermal capacity grows under transition from the symmetrical phase, described by the symmetrical complete graph to the non-symmetrical, described by the complete graph in which symmetry is broken, as shown in
Figure 2 [
29].
2.2. Continuous Phase Transitions in the Four-Fold Symmetry Systems: The Ramsey Approach
Consider now the second order phase transition in the system built of primitive cells comprising five interacting physical entities, as shown in
Figure 4. Again, we adopt that two kinds of interactions between the vertices are possible, labeled in the text
-interactions (colored in
Figure 4 with red) and
-interactions (colored in
Figure 4 with green). Four-fold initial symmetry of the primitive 2D cell is adopted. Entity “5” is located in the center of the primitive cell and it is displaced in
Figure 4,
Figure 5 and
Figure 6 from its actual position, for the purposes of clarity of the drawings. Generally, complete, bi-colored graphs containing five vertices may be colored in such a way, that no monochromatic triangle will be present in the graph. Contrastingly, it should be emphasized that the bi-coloring procedure keeping the four-fold symmetry of the graph inevitably gives rise to appearance of the mono-colored triangles; indeed, triangles “
135” and “
245” in inset
A, and triangles “125” and “345” in inset
B are monochromatic (red).
interactions); green lines depict repulsive interactions (interactions) between the entities. A. Triangles “135” and “245” are monochromatic (red). B. Triangles “125” and “345” are monochromatic (red).
Breaking symmetry of the graph enables bi-coloring for which no monochromatic triangle is recognized in the graph, as shown in
Figure 5.
interactions); green lines depict repulsive interactions (interactions) between the bodies. Four-fold symmetry of the system is broken. No monochromatic triangle is recognized in the graph.
In this case, no monochromatic (unstable) triangle is recognized in the cell; consider
. Perhaps, this Ramsey Theory based argument explains, prevalence of FCC crystal structures on HCP ones; indeed, for the dipole-dipole interactions (electric or magnetic) based crystals only FCC primitive cells were observed [
31,
32,
33,
34,
35,
36,
37].
Now consider phase transitions of the second order in the system built of five interacting entities, shown in
Figure 6. Initial primitive cell is symmetrical; after the transitions the cell becomes non-symmetrical, as shown in
Figure 6.
Again, breaking symmetry of the links conserving the total energy of the system is suggested,
and the order parameter
introduced with Eq. 2 is suggested. Now consider phase transitions of the second order in the system built of five interacting entities, shown in
Figure 6. In this case, two scenarios of breaking symmetry is possible. Within the first scenario, breaking symmetry does not give rise to the formation of monochromatic interaction triangle, as shown in inset
A of
Figure 6. This is possible due to the fact that
However, breaking symmetry may give rise to the formation of monochromatic interaction triangles, as illustrated with inset
B of
Figure 6. Triangles “125” and “135” are monochromatic (red), unstable ones.
The jump in the thermal capacity given by Eq. 5 is foreseen, and the thermal capacity quite expectably
grows under transition from the symmetrical phase to non-symmetrical [
29]. Thermal capacity
grows under transition from the symmetrical phase, described by the initial symmetrical complete graph to the final state, which is non-symmetrical, described by the complete graph in which symmetry is broken. This is true for the both types of the final states, namely those which do not exhibit monochromatic triangles (shown in inset
A of
Figure 6) and those, which contain monochromatic interaction triangles (depicted in insert
B of
Figure 6).
The graphs, shown in
Figure 4,
Figure 5 and
Figure 6 should not be necessarily planar they may describe 3D spatial locations of interacting physical entities. Such a 3D graph is depicted in
Figure 7, in which green quadrangle “1234” is located in the plane
XOY, whereas, entity “5” is located out of this plane. Four-fold symmetry is inherent for the graph, shown in
Figure 7. Phase transition analogous to the aforementioned ones, illustrated with
Figure 4,
Figure 5 and
Figure 6 are possible for the 3D structure shown in
Figure 7.
interactions); green lines depict repulsive interactions (interactions) between the entities.
The phase transitions, breaking the symmetry of the initial 3D graph, result in the growth of the thermal capacity in the non-symmetrical phase.