Comment on ‘‘Finite-size effects at temperature-driven first-order transitions’’

We reexamine the behavior near a first-order phase-transition point of the fourth-order energy cumulant VL introduced by Binder, Challa, and Landau. Our prediction is tested on the ten-states Potts model in two dimensions by Monte Carlo simulation using the Ferrenberg-Swendsen technique. We extract a latent heat in agreement with the exact result of Baxter.