Related papers: Helical, Angular and Radial Ordering in Narrow Cap…
Orientational and positional ordering properties of liquid crystal monolayers are examined by means of Fundamental-Measure Density Functional Theory. Particles forming the monolayer are modeled as hard parallelepipeds of square section of…
We propose that extended orientational correlations can appear at the surface of supercooled heavy noble liquid metals, due to the same compressive forces that cause reconstruction of their crystal surfaces. Simulations for liquid Au show a…
We report molecular dynamics calculations on two-component, cold (1.2 > T > 0.56 in natural units), three-dimensional Lennard-Jones fluids. Our system was small (7813 A, 7812 B particles), dense (N/V = 1.30), and distinctly finite (L \times…
Complex crystal structures are composed of multiple local environments, and how this type of order emerges spontaneously during crystal growth has yet to be fully understood. We study crystal growth across various structures and along…
A local order parameter which is important in the analysis of phase transitions in frustrated combinatorial problems is the probability that a node is frozen in a particular state. There is a percolative transition when an infinite…
The bent-core liquid crystals (LCs) are highly regarded as the next-generation materials for electro-optic devices. The nematic (N) phase of these LCs possesses highly ordered smectic-like cybotactic clusters which are promising in terms of…
We show that development of polar order may spontaneously destroy the lamellar structure of a liquid crystal. This results in an unusual sequence of phases with the ferroelectric nematic phase appearing below a non-polar smectic phase. The…
Chiral nematic or cholesteric liquid crystals (LCs) are mesophases with long-ranged orientational order featuring a quasi-layered periodicity imparted by a helical configuration but lacking positional order. Doping molecular cholesteric LCs…
We use molecular dynamics to study the ordering of a nematic liquid crystal around a spherical particle or droplet. Homeotropic boundary conditions and strong anchoring create a hedgehog director configuration on the particle surface and in…
Due to the lack of long-range order, it remains challenging to characterize the structure of disordered solids and understand the nature of the glass transition. Here we propose a new structural order parameter by taking into account…
Fractional quantum Hall liquids can accomodate various degrees of spatial ordering. The most likely scenarios are a Hall hexatic, Hall smectic, and Hall crystal, in which respectively orientational, one--dimensional translational, and…
In this review we consider glass states of several disordered systems: vortices in impure superconductors, amorphous magnets, and nematic liquid crystals in random porous media. All these systems can be described by the random-field or…
The Landau theory of phase transitions has been productively applied to phase transitions that involve rotational symmetry breaking, such as the transition from an isotropic fluid to a nematic liquid crystal. It even can be applied to the…
We study the classical 120-degree and related orbital models. These are the classical limits of quantum models which describe the interactions among orbitals of transition-metal compounds. We demonstrate that at low temperatures these…
We use the isoconfigurational (IC) ensemble to show the connection between emerging heterogeneities in the tetrahedral order parameter and the dynamic propensity in a mildly undercooled glass-forming liquid. We observe that spatially…
We characterize the order-disorder transition in a model lipid bilayer using molecular dynamics simulations. We find that the ordered phase is hexatic. In particular, in-plane structures possess a finite concentration of 5-7 disclination…
A binary system of classical charged particles interacting through a dipole repulsive potential and confined in a two-dimensional hardwall trap is studied by Brownian dynamics simulations. We found that the presence of small particles…
Paradigmatic model systems, which are used to study the mechanical response of matter, are random networks of point-atoms, random sphere packings, or simple crystal lattices, all of these models assume central-force interactions between…
In vivo and in vitro systems of cells and extra-cellular matrix (ECM) systems are well known to form ordered patterns of orientationally aligned fibers. Here, we interpret them as active analogs of the (disordered) isotropic to the…
We report an experimental study of the development of orientational order in a crumpled sheet, with a particular focus on the role played by the geometry of confinement. Our experiments are performed on elastomeric sheets immersed in a…