Models with symmetry-breaking phase transitions triggered by dumbbell-shaped equipotential surfaces

Abstract: In some papers some sufficiency conditions for the occurrence of a $\mathbb{Z}_2$-symmetry breaking phase transition ($\mathbb{Z}_2$-SBPT) have been showed starting from geometric-topological concepts of potential energy landscapes. In particular, a $\mathbb{Z}_2$-SBPT can be triggered by double-well potentials, or in an equivalent way, by dumbbell-shaped equipotential surfaces. In this paper we introduce two models with a $\mathbb{Z}_2$-SBPT which, due to their essential feature, show in the clearest way the generating-mechanism of a $\mathbb{Z}_2$-SBPT above mentioned. These models, despite they cannot be considered physical models, have all the features of such models with the same kind of SBPT. At the end of the paper, the $\phi^4$ model is revisited in the light of this approach. In particular, the landscape of one of the model introduced here is turned out to be equivalent to that of the mean-field $\phi^4$ model in a simplified version.