Related papers: Electrically driven first-order phase transition o…
Complexity in many-particle systems occurs through processes of qualitative differentiation. These are described by concepts such as emerging states with specific symmetries that are linked to order parameters. In quantum Hall phases of…
The structural transitions of the ground state of a system of repulsively interacting particles confined in a quasi-one-dimensional channel, and the effect of the interparticle interaction as well as the functional form of the confinement…
We present recent Monte Carlo results on surfaces of bcc-structured binary alloys which undergo an order-disorder phase transformation in the bulk. In particular, we discuss surface order and surface induced disorder at the bulk transition…
We investigate the interplay of disorder and interaction in two-dimensional electron systems in a strong magnetic field, focusing on the transition between Wigner crystals and fractional quantum Hall liquids. We first study classical Wigner…
A theoretical study of toroidal membranes with various degrees of intrinsic orientational order is presented at mean-field level. The study uses a simple Ginzburg-Landau style free energy functional, which gives rise to a rich variety of…
Phase transitions are characterized by a sharp change in the type of dynamics of microparticles, and their description usually requires quantum mechanics. Recently, a peculiar type of conductors was discovered in which two-dimensional (2D)…
We calculate the corrections to the conductivity and compressibility of a disordered metal when the mean free path is smaller than the screening length. Such a condition is shown to be realized for low densities and large disorder. Analysis…
We study the electrical behavior of multiferroic BiFeO$_3$ by means of first-principles calculations. We do so by constraining a specific component of the electric displacement field along a variety of structural paths, and by monitoring…
At high pressure, the typical behavior of elements dictated by the periodic table - including oxidation numbers, stoichiometries in compounds, and reactivity, to name but a few - is altered dramatically. As pressure is applied, the…
We investigate metal-insulator transitions in the Holstein-Hubbard model as a function of the on-site electron-electron interaction U and the electron-phonon coupling g. We use several different numerical methods to calculate the phase…
We consider the patterns of collective motion emerging when many aligning, self-propelling units move in two dimensions while interacting through a repulsive potential and are also subject to delays and random perturbations. In this…
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,…
One of the basic assumptions in organic field-effect transistors, the most fundamental device unit in organic electronics, is that charge transport occurs two-dimensionally in the first few molecular layers near the dielectric interface.…
Specific heat, resistivity, magnetic susceptibility, linear thermal expansion (LTE), and high-resolution synchrotron X-ray powder diffraction investigations of single crystals Fe1+yTe (0.06 < y < 0.15) reveal a splitting of a single,…
Nucleation is an activated process in which the system has to overcome a free energy barrier in order for a first-order phase transition between the metastable and the stable phases to take place. In the liquid-to-solid transition the…
We analyze magnetic phases of monolayers of transition metal dichalcogenides that are two-valley materials with electron-electron interactions. The exchange inter-valley scattering makes two-valley systems less stable to the spin…
Self-organization of charged particles on a 2D lattice, subject to an anisotropic Jahn-Teller-type interaction and 3D Coulomb repulsion is investigated. In the mean-field approximation without Coulomb interaction, the system displays a…
Polar liquid crystals possess three dimensional orientational order coupled with unidirectional electric polarity, yielding fluid ferroelectrics. Such polar phases are generated by rod-like molecules with large electric dipole moments.…
Understanding quantum dynamics away from equilibrium is an outstanding challenge in the modern physical sciences. It is well known that out-of-equilibrium systems can display a rich array of phenomena, ranging from self-organized…
Cadmium arsenide Cd$_3$As$_2$ hosts massless Dirac electrons in its ambient-conditions tetragonal phase. We report X-ray diffraction and electrical resistivity measurements of Cd$_3$As$_2$ upon cycling pressure beyond the critical pressure…