Related papers: A liquid-solid critical point in a simple monatomi…
We present computer simulations of long thin hard spherocylinders in a narrow planar slit. We observe a transition from the isotropic to a nematic phase with quasi-long-range orientational order upon increasing the density. This phase…
Two-step crystallization via a metastable intermediate phase is often regarded as a non-classical process that lies beyond the framework of classical nucleation theory (CNT). In this work, we investigate two-step crystallization in…
Compared to isotropic liquids, orientational order of nematic liquid crystals makes their rheological properties more involved, and thus requires fine control of the flow parameters to govern the orientational patterns. In microfluidic…
In mean-field theory, i.e. infinite-range interactions, the transition between metastable and unstable states of a thermodynamic system is sharp. The metastable and the unstable states are separated by a spinodal curve. For systems with…
In recent computer simulations of a simple monatomic system interacting via the Dzugutov pair potential, freezing of the fluid into an equilibrium dodecagonal quasicrystal has been reported [M. Dzugutov, Phys. Rev. Lett. 70, 2924 (1993)].…
We demonstrate a novel phase transition from stable to unstable fluid behaviour for fluid-filled cosmological spacetimes undergoing decelerated expansion. This transition occurs when the fluid speed of sound $c_S$ exceeds a critical value…
The persistent problem posed by the glass transition is to develop a general atomic level description of a solidification process that is not associated with any change in the symmetry of the atomic structure. The answer proposed in this…
We study the low-temperature behavior of a simple cluster-crystal forming system through simulation. The phase behavior is found to be hybrid between the Gaussian core and penetrable sphere models. The system additionally exhibits a series…
Close to sinusoidal substrates, simple fluids may undergo a filling transition, in which the fluid passes from a dry to a filled state, where the interface remains unbent but bound to the substrate. Increasing the surface field, the…
We study the interplay between an isostructural critical point and dislocation mediated two-dimensional melting, using a combination of Landau and continuum elasticity theory. If dislocations are excluded, coupling to the elastic degrees of…
We present a study using molecular dynamics simulations based on the Fermi-Jagla potential model, which is the continuous version of the mono-atomic core-softened Jagla model [J. Y. Abraham, S. V. Buldyrev, and N. Giovambattista, J. Phys.…
Extensions of a previously presented Landau-de Gennes type liquid crystalline phase transition model for the direct isotropic/smectic-A (lamellar) a phase transition to the direct isotropic/smectic-C (tilted lamellar) transition are…
Molecular anisotropy plays an important role in the glass transition of a liquid. Recently, a novel bulk glass state has been discovered by optical microscopy experiments on suspensions of ellipsoidal colloids. 'Liquid glass' is a…
In this article, we demonstrate a method for inducing reversible crystal-to-crystal transitions in binary mixtures of soft colloidal particles. Through a controlled decrease of salinity and increasingly dominating electrostatic…
We report combined optical birefringence and neutron scattering measurements on the liquid crystal 12CB nanoconfined in mesoporous silicon layers. This liquid crystal exhibits strong nematic-smectic coupling responsible for a discontinuous…
The dynamics of active smectic liquid crystals confined on a spherical surface is explored through an active phase field crystal model. Starting from an initially randomly perturbed isotropic phase, several types of topological defects are…
We investigate the orientational behaviour of a homeotropically aligned nematic liquid crystal subjected to an oscillatory plane Poiseuille flow produced by an alternating pressure gradient. For small pressure amplitudes the director…
A spontaneous buckling transition in thin layers of monodomain nematic liquid crystalline gel was observed by polarized light microscopy. The coupling between the orientational ordering of liquid crystalline solvent and the translational…
Using particle-resolved molecular-dynamics simulations, we compute the phase diagram for soft repulsive spherocylinders confined on the surface of a sphere. While crystal (K), smectic (Sm), and isotropic (I) phases exhibit a stability…
Microcanonical critical droplet theory and molecular dynamics simulations are used to examine static coexistence between solid and liquid phases in nanoscale lead clusters. It is shown that the theory predicts the existence of a metastable…