Spin-32Ising model for tricritical points in ternary fluid mixtures

Abstract

We present a lattice-gas model of ternary fluid mixtures. Within the mean-field approximation, we study a nonsymmetric tricritical point in this model. We compare our results to the experimental observations on the system ethanol-water-carbon-dioxide. In the course of our work, we have studied a Landau theory describing the neighborhood of a fourth-order critical point. Also, we have noted that mean-field theory indicates the existence of a fourth-order critical point in the spin-1 model of Blume, Emery, and Griffiths, corresponding to $K<\mathrm{}0\mathrm{}$, $J+K>\mathrm{}0\mathrm{}$.