  Here we present two explicit counterexamples to the widely spread beliefs
about an exclusive role of bimodality as the first order phase transition
signal. On the basis of an exactly solvable statistical model generalizing the
statistical multifragmentation model we demonstrate that the bimodal
distributions can naturally appear both in infinite and in finite systems
without a phase transition. In the first counterexample a bimodal distribution
appears in an infinite system at the supercritical temperatures due to the
negative values of the surface tension coefficient. In the second
counterexample we explicitly demonstrate that a bimodal fragment distribution
appears in a finite volume analog of a gaseous phase. In contrast to the
statistical multifragmentation model, the developed statistical model
corresponds to the compressible nuclear liquid with the tricritical endpoint
located at one third of the normal nuclear density. The suggested
parameterization of the liquid phase equation of state is consistent with the
L. van Hove axioms of statistical mechanics and it does not lead to an
appearance of the non-monotonic isotherms in the macroscopic mixed phase region
which are typical for the classical models of the Van der Waals type.
Peculiarly, such a way to account for the nuclear liquid compressibility
automatically leads to an appearance of an additional state that in many
respects resembles the physical antinuclear matter.
