Related papers: Provable first-order transitions for liquid crysta…
In this contribution we discuss the occurrence of first-order transitions in temperature in various short-range lattice models with a rotation symmetry. Such transitions turn out to be widespread under the condition that the interaction…
We consider an off-lattice liquid crystal pair potential in strictly two dimensions. The potential is purely repulsive and short-ranged. Nevertheless, by means of a single parameter in the potential, the system is shown to undergo a…
Using the renormalization group approach, we consider the $O(N)\otimes O(M)$ model in four and more dimensions. We find that independently on $N$ and $M$, for $N\geq M\geq 2$, a transition can be of both the first and second order. In…
The problem of the orientational ordering transition for lattice-gas models of liquid crystals is discussed in the low-dimensional case $d=1,2$. For isotropic short-range interactions, orientational long-range order at finite temperature is…
Extending previous rigorous results, we prove existence of an ordering transition at finite temperature for a class of nematogenic lattice models, where spins are associated with a one- or two-dimensional lattice, and interact via…
We investigate the phase diagram and critical behavior of a three-dimensional lattice CP(N-1) model in the large-N limit. Numerical evidence of first-order transitions is always observed for sufficiently large values of N, i.e. N>2 up to…
Considering one-dimensional nonminimally-coupled lattice gauge theories, a class of nonlocal one-dimensional systems is presented, which exhibits a phase transition. It is shown that the transition has a latent heat, and, therefore, is a…
In this note we demonstrate the occurrence of first-order transitions in temperature for some recently introduced generalized XY models, and also point out the connection between them and annealed site-diluted (lattice-gas) continuous-spin…
We investigate experimentally the dynamic phase transition of a two-dimensional active nematic layer interfaced with a passive liquid crystal. Under a temperature ramp that leads to the transition of the passive liquid into a highly…
Polyhedral nematics are examples of exotic orientational phases that possess a complex internal symmetry, representing highly non-trivial ways of rotational symmetry breaking, and are subject to current experimental pursuits in colloidal…
We prove that various SO(n)-invariant n-vector models with interactions which have a deep and narrow enough minimum have a first-order transition in the temperature. The result holds in dimension two or more, and is independent on the…
We present simulation data of first-order isotropic-to-nematic transitions in lattice models of liquid crystals and locate the thermodynamic limit inverse transition temperature $\epsilon_\infty$ via finite-size scaling. We observe that the…
We study the kinetics of the nematic-isotropic transition in a two-dimensional liquid crystal by using a lattice Boltzmann scheme that couples the tensor order parameter and the flow consistently. Unlike in previous studies, we find the…
We demonstrate that a first order isotropic-to-nematic phase transition in liquid crystals can be succesfully modeled within the generalized Landau-de Gennes theory by selecting an appropriate combination of elastic constants. The numerical…
In a previous paper [Phys. Rev. E 90, 022506 (2014)], we had studied thermodynamic and structural properties of a three-dimensional simple-cubic lattice model with dipolar-like interaction, truncated at nearest-neighbor separation, for…
We investigate the critical behavior of three-dimensional ferromagnetic CP(N-1) models, which are characterized by a global U(N) and a local U(1) symmetry. We perform numerical simulations of a lattice model for N=2, 3, and 4. For N=2 we…
We present experimental evidence for a first-order freezing/melting phase transition in a nonequilibrium system -- an oscillated two-dimensional isobaric granular fluid. The steady-state transition occurs between a gas and a crystal and is…
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…
We study the melting of a moving vortex lattice through numerical simulations with the current driven 3D XY model with disorder. We find that there is a first-order phase transition even for large disorder when the corresponding equilibrium…
We consider a two-dimensional lattice model for liquid crystals consisting of long rods interacting via purely hard core interactions, with two allowed orientations defined by the underlying lattice. We rigorously prove the existence of a…