  In the area of topological and geometric treatment of phase transitions and
symmetry breaking in Hamiltonian systems, in a recent paper some general
sufficient conditions for these phenomena in $\mathbb{Z}_2$-symmetric systems
(i.e. invariant under reflection of coordinates) have been found out. In this
paper we present a simple topological model satisfying the above conditions
hoping to enlighten the mechanism which causes this phenomenon in more general
physical models. The symmetry breaking is testified by a continuous
magnetization with a nonanalytic point in correspondence of a critical
temperature which divides the broken symmetry phase from the unbroken one. A
particularity with respect to the common pictures of a phase transition is that
the nonanalyticity of the magnetization is not accompanied by a nonanalytic
behavior of the free energy.
