Related papers: Freezing on a Sphere
A crystal structure with a point defect typically returns to its ideal local structure upon moving a few bond lengths away from the defect; topological defects such as dislocations or disclinations also heal rapidly in this regard. Here we…
Liquid crystals are assemblies of rod-like molecules which self-organize to form mesophases, in-between ordinary liquids and anisotropic crystals. At each point, the molecules collectively orient themselves along a privileged direction,…
Self-assembly of particles with short-range attraction and long-range repulsion (SALR) interactions on a flat and on a spherical surface is compared. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations are performed for the two systems having the same area…
Characterizing the complex spectrum of topological defects in ground states of curved crystals is a long-standing problem with wide implications, from the mathematical Thomson problem to diverse physical realizations, including fullerenes…
Rod-like objects at high packing fractions can form smectic phases, where the rods break rotational and translational symmetry by forming lamellae. Smectic defects thereby include both discontinuities in the rod orientational order…
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…
Topological point defects on orientationally ordered spheres, and on deformable fluid vesicles have been partly motivated by their potential applications in creating super-atoms with directional bonds through functionalization of the…
Smectic liquid crystals are materials formed by stacking deformable, fluid layers. Though smectics prefer to have flat, uniformly-spaced layers, boundary conditions can impose curvature on the layers. Since the layer spacing and curvature…
We study the phase behavior of hard spheres confined between two parallel hard plates using extensive computer simulations. We determine the full equilibrium phase diagram for arbitrary densities and plate separations from one to five…
Well into the deleptonization phase of a core collapse supernova, a first-order phase transition to matter with macroscopic strangeness content is assumed to occur and lead to a structured lattice defined by negatively charged strange…
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…
Freezing of charged colloids on square or triangular two-dimensional periodic substrates has been recently shown to realize a rich variety of orientational orders. We propose a theoretical framework to analyze the corresponding structures.…
The process of homogeneous crystal nucleation has been considered in a model liquid, where the interparticle interaction is described by a short-range spherical oscillatory potential. Mechanisms of initiating structural ordering in the…
We investigate theoretically globally nonuniform configurations of quantized-flux vortices in clean superconductors trapped by an external force field that induces a nonuniform vortex density profile. Using an extensive series of numerical…
The effect of freezing on contact line motion is a scientific challenge in the understanding of the solidification of capillary flows. In this letter, we experimentally investigate the spreading and freezing of a water droplet on a cold…
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…
Spherical colloidal crystals (CCs) self-assemble on the interface between two liquids. These 2D structures unconventionally combine local hexagonal order and spherical geometry. Nowadays CCs are actively studied by altering their…
We describe the linear and nonlinear stability and instability of certain symmetric configurations of point vortices on the sphere forming relative equilibria. These configurations consist of one or two rings, and a ring with one or two…
The D2O ice VI to ice XV hydrogen ordering phase transition at ambient pressure is investigated in detail with neutron diffraction. The lattice constants are found to be sensitive indicators for hydrogen ordering. The a and b lattice…
Freezing or solidification of impacting droplets is omnipresent in nature and technology, be it a rain droplet falling on a supercooled surface, be it in inkjet printing where often molten wax is used, be it in added manufacturing or in…