English

Vicinal Surfaces, Fractional Statistics and Universality

Statistical Mechanics 2009-10-31 v2

Abstract

We propose that the phases of all vicinal surfaces can be characterized by four fixed lines, in the renormalization group sense, in a three-dimensional space of coupling constants. The observed configurations of several Si surfaces are consistent with this picture. One of these fixed lines also describes one-dimensional quantum particles with fractional exclusion statistics. The featureless steps of a vicinal surface can therefore be thought of as a realization of fractional-statistics particles, possibly with additional short-range interactions.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.cond-mat/9907334,
  title  = {Vicinal Surfaces, Fractional Statistics and Universality},
  author = {Somendra M. Bhattacharjee and Sutapa Mukherji},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/9907334},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

6 pages, revtex, 3 eps figures. To appear in Physical Review Letters. Reference list properly arranged. Caption of Fig. 1 slightly reworded. Fig 3 (in color) is not part of the paper. It complements Fig.1

R2 v1 2026-07-22T12:13:30.847Z