Distributed Latent Heat of Phase Transitions in Low-Dimensional Conductors

Abstract—It is shown that if the temperature of the second-order phase transition is lowered due to fluctuations, then the dominant singularity at the transition is the maximum, and not the jump in specific heat. A certain value of latent heat corresponds to this transition, and an estimate is proposed for it. The result is compared with the singularities of the specific heat and coefficient of thermal expansion in the region of Peierls and superconducting transitions.