Related papers: No quasi-long-range order in the two-dimensional l…
The Lebwohl-Lasher model describes the isotropic-nematic transition in liquid crystals. In two dimensions, where its continuous symmetry cannot break spontaneously, it is investigated numerically since decades to verify, in particular, the…
The Lebwohl-Lasher (LL) model is the traditional model used to describe the nematic-isotropic transition of real liquid crystals. In this paper, we develop a numerical study of the temperature behaviour and of finite-size scaling of the…
Liquid crystals in two dimensions undergo a first-order isotropic-to-quasi-nematic transition, provided the particle interactions are sufficiently ``sharp and narrow''. This implies phase coexistence between isotropic and quasi-nematic…
Simulations of nematic-isotropic transition of liquid crystals in two dimensions are performed using an O(2) vector model characterised by non linear nearest neighbour spin interaction governed by the fourth Legendre polynomial $P\_4$. The…
Quasi-long ranged order is the hallmark of two-dimensional liquid crystals. At equilibrium, this property implies that the correlation function of the local orientational order parameter decays with distance as a power law: i.e.…
Liquid crystals in two dimensions do not support long-ranged nematic order, but a quasi-nematic phase where the orientational correlations decay algebraically is possible. The transition from the isotropic to the quasi-nematic phase can be…
When driven by nonequilibrium fluctuations, particle systems may display phase transitions and physical behaviour with no equilibrium counterpart. We study a two-dimensional particle model initially proposed to describe driven non-Brownian…
We discuss a certain class of two-dimensional quantum systems which exhibit conventional order and topological order, as well as two-dimensional quantum critical points separating these phases. All of the ground-state equal-time correlators…
A spin dynamics algorithm, combining checkerboard updating and a rotation algorithm based on the local second-rank ordering field, is developed for the Lebwohl-Lasher model of liquid crystals. The method is shown to conserve energy well and…
We study the kinetics of the nematic-isotropic transition in a two-dimensional liquid crystal by using a lattice Boltzmann scheme that couples the tensor order parameter and the flow consistently. Unlike in previous studies, we find the…
We consider a two dimensional model of non-interacting chains of spinless fermions weakly coupled via a small inter-chain hopping and a repulsive inter-chain interaction. The phase diagram of this model has a surprising feature: an abrupt…
Critical point of liquid-gas (LG) transition does not conform with the paradigm of spontaneous symmetry breaking because there is no broken symmetry in both phases. This stimulated the ongoing debate about the nature of the universality…
We consider a simple model consisting of particles with four bonding sites ("patches"), two of type A and two of type B, on the square lattice, and investigate its global phase behavior by simulations and theory. We set the interaction…
Spontaneous onset of a low temperature topologically ordered phase in a 2-dimensional (2D) lattice model of uniaxial liquid crystal (LC) was debated extensively pointing to a suspected underlying mechanism affecting the RG flow near the…
We investigate the calorimetric liquid-glass transition by performing simulations of a binary Lennard-Jones mixture in one through four dimensions. Starting at a high temperature, the systems are cooled to T=0 and heated back to the ergodic…
We present here a numerical study of a lattice model of a chiral liquid. The low symmetry of the favoured local structure depresses the freezing point to reveal an exotic liquid-liquid transition characterised by the appearance of an…
We numerically study two-dimensional athermal chiral active particles at high densities. The particles in this system perform the circular motion with frequency $\Omega$. We show that the system crystallizes at high densities even in two…
We investigate the controversial issue of the existence of universality classes describing critical phenomena in three-dimensional statistical systems characterized by a matrix order parameter with symmetry O(2)xO(N) and symmetry-breaking…
A rigorous theory of liquid-crystal transitions is developed starting from the Liouville equation. The starting point is an all-atom description and a set of order parameter field variables that are shown to evolve slowly via Newton's…
We consider the two-dimensional Landau-de Gennes energy with several elastic constants, subject to general $k$-radially symmetric boundary conditions. We show that for generic elastic constants the critical points consistent with the…