Origins of phase transitions in small systems - art. no. 047105

The identification and classification of phases in small systems, e.g., nuc lei, social and financial networks, clusters, and biological systems, where the traditional definitions of phase transitions are not applicable, is im portant to obtain a deeper understanding of the phenomena observed in such systems. Within a simple statistical model, we investigate the validity and applicability of different classification schemes for phase transitions in small systems. We show that the whole complex temperature plane contains n ecessary information in order to give a distinct classification.