Ising-like Models with Energy-Volume Coupling.

We consider a regular assembly of singly occupied cells with two accessible volumes. Coupled to cell volumes are interaction energies between nearest neighbors that lead to a phase transition with a critical point. We find that these compressible cell models can serve as Ising-like prototypes of the one-component liquid-liquid and isostructural solid-solid phase transitions that originate in the short-range features of the intermolecular potential. The mean-field solutions provide hints concerning the analytical form of the equation of state of liquid water.