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Surface-induced liquid crystalline phase transitions evoke fundamental interest and can provide deeper insight into the nature of low-dimensional phase transitions. Board-like conjugated polymers are particularly interesting because they…
Organogenesis involves large deformations and complex shape changes that require elaborate mechanical regulation. Models of tissue biomechanics have been introduced to account for the coupling between mechanical response and biochemical…
We study an experimental system of hard granular squares in two dimensions, energized by vibration. The interplay of order in the orientations and positions of anisotropic particles allows for a rich set of phases. We measure the structure…
We review the depinning and nonequilibrium phases of collectively interacting particle systems driven over random or periodic substrates. This type of system is relevant to vortices in type-II superconductors, sliding charge density waves,…
Anisotropic, submicrometer sized particles are versatile systems providing interesting features in creating ordering in 2-dimensional systems. Combining hard ellipsoids with a soft shell further enhances the opportunities to trigger and…
We discuss theoretically phase transitions in frustrated antiferromagnets with biaxial anisotropy or dipolar forces in magnetic field applied along the easy axis at $T=0$. There are well-known sequences of phase transitions upon the field…
Random packings of stiff rods are self-supporting mechanical structures stabilized by long range interactions induced by contacts. To understand the geometrical and topological complexity of the packings, we first deploy X-ray computerized…
Can a bath of isotropic but active particles promote ordering of anisotropic but passive particles? In this paper, we uncover a fluctuation-driven mechanism by which this is possible. Somewhat counter-intuitively, we show that the passive…
Anisotropic fluids appear in a diverse array of systems, from liquid-crystal displays to bacterial swarms, and are characterized by orientational order. Large colloidal particles immersed in such environments disturb the medium's…
We study the effect of thermal fluctuations in the XY-model on a surface with non vanishing mean curvature and zero Gaussian curvature. Unlike Gaussian curvature that typically frustrates orientational order, the extrinsic curvature of the…
We theoretically study the phase behaviour of monolayers of hard rod-plate mixtures using a fundamental-measure density functional in the restricted-orientation (Zwanzig) approximation. We consider both species to be subject to an…
Ion Beam Sputtering (IBS) is a cost-effective technique able to produce ordered nanopatterns on the surfaces of different materials. To date, most theoretical studies of this process have focused on systems which become amorphous under…
A possible spin-reorientation transition in field-induced magnetic ordering phases of the S=1 Haldane system with large easy-plane anisotropy is proposed, using an effective Lagrangian formalism as well as the density matrix renormalization…
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…
When an amorphous solid is deformed cyclically, it may reach a steady state in which the paths of constituent particles trace out closed loops that repeat in each driving cycle. A remarkable variant has been noticed in simulations where the…
The dynamical responses of a rodlike anisotropic Heisenberg ferromagnet, irradiated by the propagating magnetic field wave, have been studied by Monte Carlo simulation using Metropolis single spin-flip algorithm. A nonequilibrium dynamical…
Recent experimental developments in the iron pnictides have unambiguously demonstrated the existence of in-plane electronic anisotropy in the absence of the long-range magnetic order. Such anisotropy can arise from orbital ordering, which…
In $\alpha$-RuCl$_3$, an external magnetic field applied within the honeycomb plane can induce a transition from a magnetically ordered state to a disordered state that is potentially related to the Kitaev quantum spin liquid. In zero…
This paper is concerned with the dynamics of a binary mixture of rod--like, repulsive colloidal particles driven out of equilibrium by means of a steady shear flow (Couette geometry). To this end we first derive, starting from a microscopic…
Growth of hard--rod monolayers via deposition is studied in a lattice model using rods with discrete orientations and in a continuum model with hard spherocylinders. The lattice model is treated with kinetic Monte Carlo simulations and…