Thermodynamics of finite magnetic two-isomer systems

We use Monte Carlo simulations to investigate the thermodynamical behavior of aggregates consisting of few superparamagnetic particles in a colloidal suspension. The potential energy surface of this classical two-isomer system with a stable and a metastable “ring” and “chain” configuration is tunable by an external magnetic field and temperature. We determine the complex “phase diagram” of this system and analyze thermodynamically the nature of the transition between the ring and the chain “phase.”