English

Emergent rhombus tilings from molecular interactions with $M$-fold rotational symmetry

Statistical Mechanics 2015-03-25 v1 Soft Condensed Matter

Abstract

We show that model molecules with particular rotational symmetries can self-assemble into network structures equivalent to rhombus tilings. This assembly happens in an emergent way, in the sense that molecules spontaneously select irregular 4-fold local coordination from a larger set of possible local binding geometries. The existence of such networks can be rationalized by simple geometrical arguments, but the same arguments do not guarantee networks' spontaneous self-assembly. This class of structures must in certain regimes of parameter space be able to reconfigure into networks equivalent to triangular tilings.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1411.3644,
  title  = {Emergent rhombus tilings from molecular interactions with $M$-fold rotational symmetry},
  author = {Stephen Whitelam and Isaac Tamblyn and Juan P. Garrahan and Peter H. Beton},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1411.3644},
  year   = {2015}
}