Related papers: Freezing on a Sphere
Hard sphere systems are often used to model simple fluids. The configuration spaces of hard spheres in a three-dimensional torus modulo various symmetry groups are comparatively simple, and could provide valuable information about the…
We study the deformation of a fluctuating crystalline sheet confined between two flat rigid walls as a simple model for layered solids where bonds among atoms {\it within} the same layer are much stronger than those {\it between} layers.…
We study the XY model on a spherical surface inspired by recently realized spherically confined atomic gases. Instead of a traditional latitude-longitude lattice, we introduce a much more homogeneous spherical lattice, the Fibonacci…
Stabilizing defects in liquid-crystal systems is crucial for many physical processes and applications ranging from functionalizing liquid-crystal textures to recently reported command of chaotic behaviors of active matters. In this work, we…
Disclinations or disclination clusters in smectic C freely suspended films with topological charges larger than one are unstable. They disintegrate, preferably in a spatially symmetric fashion, into single defects with individual charges…
We report the observation of the transition from an ordered solid-like phase to a disordered liquid-like phase of a lattice of spikes on a ferrofluid surface submitted to horizontal sinusoidal vibrations. The melting transition occurs for a…
We consider the shape of crystals which are soft in the sense that their elastic modulus $\mu$ is small compared to their surface tension $\gamma$, more precisely $ \mu a < \gamma$ where $a$ is the lattice spacing. We show that their…
In a number of geophysical or planetological settings (Earth's inner core, a silicate mantle crystallizing from a magma ocean, or an ice shell surrounding a deep water ocean) a convecting crystalline layer is in contact with a layer of its…
Topological order characterizes a class of quantum and classical many-body liquid states that escape the conventional classification by spontaneous symmetry breaking. Many properties of the topological-ordered states still await a clear…
It has been implicitly assumed that ices on grains in molecular clouds and proto planetary disks are formed by homogeneous layers regardless of their composition or crystallinity. To verify this assumption, we observed the H2O deposition…
We study static and dynamical properties that distinguish two dimensional crystals constrained to lie on a curved substrate from their flat space counterparts. A generic mechanism of dislocation unbinding in the presence of varying Gaussian…
The elastic response of the crystalline sheet to the stretching deformation in the form of wrinkles has been extensively investigated. In this work, we extend this fundamental scientific question to the plastic regime by exploring the…
Point defects play a crucial role in crystalline materials as they do not only impact the thermodynamic properties but are also central to kinetic processes. While they are necessary in thermodynamic equilibrium spontaneous defect formation…
We study elasticity-driven morphological transitions of soft spherical core shell structures in which the core can be treated as an isotropic elastic continuum and the surface or shell as a tensionless liquid layer, whose elastic response…
Motivated by recent experiments, we consider theoretically the compression of droplets pinned at the bottom on a surface of finite area. We show that if the droplet is sufficiently compressed at the top by a surface, it will always develop…
Inverse melting, in which a crystal reversibly transforms into a liquid or amorphous phase upon decreasing the temperature, is considered to be very rare in nature. The search for such an unusual equilibrium phenomenon is often hampered by…
Topological defects -- locations of local mismatch of order -- are a universal concept playing important roles in diverse systems studied in physics and beyond, including the universe, various condensed matter systems, and recently, even…
We present a dynamic model to study ordering of particles on arbitrary curved surfaces. Thereby the particles are represented as maxima in a density field and a surface partial differential equation for the density field is solved to the…
In this paper we use computer simulations to examine point defects in systems of "soft" colloidal particles including Hertzian spheres, and star polymers. We use Monte Carlo simulations to determine the deformation of the different crystals…
The structural evolution of suspensions upon freezing is studied with optical microscopy in a suspended droplet configuration. Droplets have millimeter size and consist in an aqueous mixture of silica particles while the surroundings phase…