It is known from experimental evidence that the Raman shift of nitrogen and
nitrogen in argon, measured as a function of the pressure at ambient tempe
rature, reveals a positive jump at the transition from the liquid to the so
lid phase. Intuitively, this increase is sometimes attributed to the increa
se of density, but recently it has been shown that the change in order at t
he transition also plays a role. The present study deals with the behavior
of nitrogen diluted in xenon. In this system, even a negative jump is found
experimentally. Computer simulations on a model system for the N-2-Xe mixt
ure make clear that in this case the effect of the change in order is oppos
ite. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-9606(99)01006-5].