  One-dimensional thermodynamic instabilities are phase transitions not
prohibited by Landau's argument, because the energy of the domain wall (DW)
which separates the two phases is infinite. Whether they actually occur in a
given system of particles must be demonstrated on a case-by-case basis by
examining the (non-) analyticity properties of the corresponding transfer
integral (TI) equation. The present note deals with the generic Peyrard-Bishop
model of DNA denaturation. In the absence of exact statements about the
spectrum of the singular TI equation, I use Gauss-Hermite quadratures to
achieve a single-parameter-controlled approach to rounding effects; this allows
me to employ finite-size scaling concepts in order to demonstrate that a phase
transition occurs and to derive the critical exponents.
