English

Density functional theory for soft matter with mesoscopic length scale fluctuations included within field-theoretic formalism

Soft Condensed Matter 2013-05-29 v1 Statistical Mechanics

Abstract

Mesoscopic theory for soft-matter systems that combines density functional and statistical field theory is derived from the microscopic theory by a systematic coarse-graining procedure. Within the framework of this theory we obtain the universal sequence of phases: disordered, bcc, hexagonal, lamellar, inverted hexagonal, inverted bcc, disordered, for increasing density well below the close-packing density. In addition to the above phases, more complex phases may appear depending on the interaction potentials. For a particular form of the short-range attraction long-range repulsion potential we find the bicontinuous gyroid phase (Ia3d symmetry) that may be related to a network forming cluster of colloids in a mixture of colloids and nonadsorbing polymers.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0809.2900,
  title  = {Density functional theory for soft matter with mesoscopic length scale fluctuations included within field-theoretic formalism},
  author = {A. Ciach},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0809.2900},
  year   = {2013}
}