Related papers: From Continuous to First-Order-Like: Amorphous-to-…
Disordering of solids typically leads to amorphization, but polymorph transitions, facilitated by favorable atomic rearrangements, may temporarily help to maintain long-range periodicity in the solid state. In far-from-equilibrium…
The dynamics at the critical-point of a general first-order quantum phase transition in a finite system is examined, from an algebraic perspective. Suitable Hamiltonians are constructed whose spectra exhibit coexistence of states…
Although several theories relate the steep slowdown of glass formers to increasing spatial correlations of some sort, standard static correlation functions show no evidence for this. We present results that reveal for the first time a…
Despite the simplicity of its molecular unit, water is a challenging system because of its uniquely rich polymorphism and predicted but yet unconfirmed features. Introducing a novel space of generalized coordinates that capture changes in…
We present a systematic study of the topology of the vortex solid phase in superconducting Bi$_{2}$Sr$_{2}$CaCu$_{2}$O$_{8}$ samples with low doses of columnar defects. A new state of vortex matter imposed by the presence of geometrical…
Much attention has been devoted to water's metastable phase behavior, including polyamorphism (multiple amorphous solid phases), and the hypothesized liquid-liquid transition and associated critical point. However, the possible relationship…
Structurally disordered materials continue to pose fundamental questions, including that of how different disordered phases ("polyamorphs") can coexist and transform from one to another. As a widely studied case, amorphous silicon (a-Si)…
Supercooled liquid state is a particularly interesting state in that it exhibits several unusual physical properties. To illustrate, the liquid displays a single peak relaxation frequency at high temperatures, which splits into $\alpha$…
Liquid-liquid transition is an intriguing phenomenon in which a liquid transforms into another liquid via the first-order transition. For molecular liquids, however, it always takes place in a supercooled liquid state metastable against…
First-order phase transitions, classical or quantum, subject to randomness coupled to energy-like variables (bond randomness) can be rounded, resulting in continuous transitions (emergent criticality). We study perhaps the simplest such…
Layered transition-metal trichalcogenides have become one of the research frontiers as two-dimensional magnets and candidate materials used for phase-change memory devices. Herein we report the high-pressure synchrotron X-ray diffraction…
We investigate in this paper the ground state and the nature of the transition from an orientational ordered phase at low temperature to the disordered state at high temperature in a molecular crystal. Our model is a Potts model which takes…
First-order phase transitions are characterized by a discontinuous first derivative of the Gibbs free energy, so that volumes and entropies are discontinuous. Such transitions are common in the crystalline state, but extremely rare in…
Crystals form regular and robust structures that under extreme conditions can melt and recrystallize into different arrangements in a process that is called crystal metamorphism. While crystals exist due to the breaking of a continuous…
The routine transformation of a liquid, as it is cooled rapidly, resulting in glass formation, is remarkably complex. A theoretical explanation of the dynamics associated with this process has remained one of the major unsolved problems in…
We report here a study of reversible pressure-induced structural transformation between two amorphous forms of SO$_2$: molecular at pressures below 26 GPa and polymeric above this pressure, at temperatures of 77 - 300 K. The transformation…
Poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) is a semi--crystalline polymer that can be crystallized to different degrees heating from the amorphous state. Even when primary crystallization has been completed, secondary crystallization can take place…
Aperiodic crystals are the intermediates between strictly periodic crystalline matter and amorphous solids. The lack of translational symmetry combined with intrinsic long-range order endows aperiodic crystals with unique physical…
What characterises a solid is its way to respond to external stresses. Ordered solids, such crystals, display an elastic regime followed by a plastic one, both well understood microscopically in terms of lattice distortion and dislocations.…
Computer simulations are presented of the isotropic-to-nematic transition in a liquid crystal confined between two parallel plates a distance H apart. The plates are neutral and do not impose any anchoring on the particles. Depending on the…