Related papers: 'Setting things straight' by twisting and bending?
The recent discovery of spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking has demonstrated the possibility of discovering the exotic textures of ferromagnetic systems in liquid crystalline fluid ferro-electrics. We show that the polar smectic mesophase…
The combined effect of disorder and symmetry-breaking fields on the two-dimensional XY model is examined. The study includes disorder in the interaction among spins in the form of random phase shifts as well as disorder in the local…
We use exact diagonalization combined with mean-field theory to investigate the phase diagram of the spin-orbital model for cubic vanadates. The spin-orbit coupling competes with Hund's exchange and triggers a novel phase, with the ordering…
An electron nematic is a translationally invariant state which spontaneously breaks the discrete rotational symmetry of a host crystal. In a clean square lattice, the electron nematic has two preferred orientations, while dopant disorder…
The investigation of the Hamiltonian dynamical counterpart of phase transitions, combined with the Riemannian geometrization of Hamiltonian dynamics, has led to a preliminary formulation of a differential-topological theory of phase…
Over the past decade, materials that combine broken inversion symmetry with metallic conductivity have gone from a thought experiment to one of the fastest growing research topics. In 2013, the observation of the first uncontested polar…
The recently discovered heliconical ferroelectric nematic (NTBF) phase is a unique example of spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking in a proper ferroelectric fluid. In this study, we investigate four homologous series of mesogenic compounds,…
We develop a theory of anomalous elasticity in disordered two-dimensional flexible materials with orthorhombic crystal symmetry. Similar to the clean case, we predict existence of infinitely many flat phases with anisotropic bending…
We study theoretically the instabilities induced by a linearly polarized ordinary light wave incident at a small oblique angle on a thin layer of homeotropically oriented nematic liquid crystal with special emphasis on the dye-doped case.…
Liquid crystals have attracted enormous interest because of the variety of their phases and richness of their application. The interplay of general physical symmetries and specific molecular features generates a myriad of different…
The ferroelectric nematic phase (NF) is a recently discovered phase of matter in which the orientational order of the conventional nematic liquid crystal state is augmented with polar order. Atomistic simulations suggest that the polar NF…
The moduli in a 4D N=1 heterotic compactification on an elliptic CY, as well as in the dual F-theoretic compactification, break into "base" parameters which are even (under the natural involution of the elliptic curves), and "fiber" or…
What kind of one-dimensional modulated nematic structures (ODMNS) can form nonchiral and chiral bent-core and dimeric materials? Here, using Landau-deGennes theory of nematics, extended to account for molecular steric polarization, we study…
Recently, Tavarone et al. (J. Chem. Phys. 143, 114505 (2015)) discussed phase behavior of zig-zag and bow-shaped particles composed of three needles. The authors presented very interesting results of extensive Monte Carlo simulations with…
A computational study of morphological instabilities of a two-dimensional nematic front under directional growth was performed using a Landau-de Gennes type quadrupolar tensor order parameter model for the first-order isotropic/nematic…
Nonreciprocal charge transport in solids, where resistance is different between rightward and leftward currents, is a key function of rectifying devices in the modern electronics, as exemplified by $p$-$n$ semiconductor junctions. Recently,…
As new classes of transients and variable stars are discovered, and theoretical models are established to work or not to work for a few members of the class, it is often the case that some researchers will make arguments on the basis of…
We predict the existence of a new defect-lattice phase near the nematic - smectic-C (NC) transition. This tilt- analogue of the blue phase is a lattice of double-tilt cylinders. We discuss the structure and stability of the cone phase. We…
The sliding friction of a dimer moving over a periodic substrate and subjected to an external force is studied in the steady state for arbitrary temperatures within a one-dimensional model. Nonlinear phenomena that emerge include dynamic…
In quantum mechanics, it is often thought that the spin of an object points in a fixed direction at any point in time. For example, after selecting the z-direction as the axis of quantization, a spin-1/2 object (such as an electron) may…