Related papers: Isotropic-Nematic Phase Transitions in Gravitation…
Experimental nuclear level densities at excitation energies below the neutron threshold follow closely a constant-temperature shape. This dependence is unexpected and poorly understood. In this work, a fundamental explanation of the…
The isotropic-to-nematic transition in an athermal solution of long rigid rods subject to a gravitational (or centrifugal) field is theoretically considered in the Onsager approximation. The new feature emerging in the presence of gravity…
The cubic blue phases of liquid crystals are fascinating and technologically promising examples of hierarchically structured soft materials, comprising ordered networks of defect lines (disclinations) within a liquid crystalline matrix. We…
A Self Consistent Field Theory description of equilibrium, but non uniform, configurations adopted by semi flexible liquid crystal molecules is presented. Two cases are considered, isotropic-nematic phase boundaries, and topological defects…
The dynamic orientational order-disorder transition of clusters consisting of octahedral molecules is formulated in terms of symmetry-adapted rotator functions. The transition from a higher-temperature body-centered-cubic, orientationally…
We investigate the collective behavior of sterically interacting self-propelled particles confined in a harmonic potential. Our theoretical and numerical study unveils the emergence of distinctive collective polar organizations, revealing…
Recent experimental and computational studies of vibrated thin layers of identical spheres have shown transitions to ordered phases similar to those seen in equilibrium systems. Motivated by these results, we carry out simulations of hard…
We report the discovery of a mixed orientational structure in the quasi-one-dimensional fluid of hard non-spherical bodies with the exact calculation of the thermodynamic and structural quantities using the transfer operator method. The…
In two dimensions, a system of self-gravitating particles collapses and forms a singularity in finite time below a critical temperature $T_c$. We investigate experimentally a quasi two-dimensional cloud of cold neutral atoms in interaction…
Using overdamped Brownian dynamics simulations we investigate the isotropic-nematic (IN) transition of self-propelled rods in three spatial dimensions. For two well-known model systems (Gay-Berne potential and hard spherocylinders) we find…
Curved particles have been shown to stabilize a range of states with unique order in dense suspensions of colloidal bent core liquid crystals. The shape of the colloidal rods encourages the formation of curved director fields. However,…
I consider a self-gravitating, N-body system assuming that the N constituents follow regular orbits about the center of mass of the cluster, where a central massive object may be present. I calculate the average over a characteristic…
Linear defects such as dislocations and disclinations in ordered materials attract foreign particles since they replace strong elastic distortions at the defect cores. In this work, we explore the behavior of isotropic droplets nucleating…
The common phase diagrams of superconducting iron pnictides show interesting material specificities in the structural and magnetic phase transitions. In some cases the two transitions are separate and second order, while in others they…
Understanding quantum dynamics away from equilibrium is an outstanding challenge in the modern physical sciences. It is well known that out-of-equilibrium systems can display a rich array of phenomena, ranging from self-organized…
We explore the stability of isotropic, spherical, self-gravitating systems with a double-power law density profile. Systems with rapid transitions between the inner and outer slopes are shown to have an inflection in their isotropic…
The isothermal compression of a dilute nucleonic gas invoking cluster degrees of freedom is studied in an equilibrium statistical model; this clusterized system is found to be more stable than the pure nucleonic system. The equation of…
We study the phase transition of a system of self-gravitating neutrinos in the presence of a large radiation density background in the framework of the Thomas-Fermi model. We show that, by cooling a non-degenerate gas of massive neutrinos…
We consider the hydrodynamic theory of an active fluid of self-propelled particles with nematic aligning interactions. This class of materials has polar symmetry at the microscopic level, but forms macrostates of nematic symmetry. We…
Motivated by recent experiments on quasi-1D vanadium oxides, we study quantum phase transitions in a one-dimensional spin-orbital model describing a Haldane chain and a classical Ising chain locally coupled by the relativistic spin-orbit…