Related papers: The liquid-crystalline smectic blue phases
The ground state of twist-bend nematic liquid crystals is a heliconical molecular arrangement in which the nematic director precesses uniformly about an axis, making a fixed angle with it. Both precession senses are allowed in the ground…
We put the theory of interacting topological crystalline phases on a systematic footing. These are topological phases protected by space-group symmetries. Our central tool is an elucidation of what it means to "gauge" such symmetries. We…
We present a pedagogical review of the swelling thermodynamics and phase transitions of polymer gels. In particular, we discuss how features of the volume phase transition of the gel's osmotic equilibrium is analogous to other transitions…
The phase-ordering kinetics of a bulk uniaxial nematic liquid crystal is addressed using techniques that have been successfully applied to describe ordering in the O(n) model. The method involves constructing an appropriate mapping between…
Several recent studies find that 10 - 50% of morphologically selected field early-type galaxies at redshifts z <= 1 have blue colors indicative of recent star formation. Such ``blue spheroids''might be massive early-type galaxies with…
We have carried out Monte Carlo simulations of zig-zag shaped molecules where the the molecules is composed of three rigidly linked hard spherocylinder arranged in a zigzag fashion. By varying zigzag angle we have mapped out the whole phase…
The homotopy theory of topological defects in ordered media fails to completely characterize systems with broken translational symmetry. We argue that the problem can be understood in terms of the lack of rotational Goldstone modes in such…
The phase-field-crystal model is used to access the structure and thermodynamics of interfaces between two coexisting liquid crystalline phases in two spatial dimensions. Depending on the model parameters there is a variety of possible…
We investigate the ordering properties of vertically-vibrated monolayers of granular cylinders in a circular container at high packing fraction. In line with previous works by other groups, we identify liquid-crystalline ordering behaviour…
There seems to be a one to one correspondence between the phases of atomic and molecular matter (AMOM) and vortex matter (VM) in superfluids and superconductors. Crystals, liquids and glasses have been experimentally observed in both AMOM…
The bent-core liquid crystals (LCs) are highly regarded as the next-generation materials for electro-optic devices. The nematic (N) phase of these LCs possesses highly ordered smectic-like cybotactic clusters which are promising in terms of…
Using computer simulations, we studied the diffusion and structural relaxation in equilibrium smectic liquid crystal bulk phases of parallel hard spherocylinders. These systems exhibit a non-Gaussian layer-to-layer diffusion due to the…
In soft ferroelectric crystals, the depolarization field can be reduced by periodic distortion of the polarization direction. In the polar nematic and tilted smectic phases, this process is energetically favorured , as it only requires…
Vibrated monolayers of granular particles confined into horizontal cavities form a variety of fluid patterns with orientational order that resemble equilibrium liquid-crystal phases. In some cases one can identify nematic and smectic…
Twist-grain-boundary phases in smectics are the geometrical analogs of the Abrikosov flux lattice in superconductors. At large twist angles, the nonlinear elasticity is important in evaluating their energetics. We analytically construct the…
The row model for frustrated XY spins on a triangular lattice in 2D is used to study incommensurate{IC}) spiral and commensurate{C} antiferromagnetic (AF) phases, in the regime where a C-IC transition occurs. Using fluctuating boundary…
A new class of self-similar ordered structures with non-crystallographic point symmetries is presented. Each of these structures, named superquasicrystals, is given as a section of a higher-dimensional "crystal" with recursive superlattice…
Blue large-amplitude pulsators (BLAPs) are a newly discovered type of variable star. Their typical pulsation periods are on the order of a few tens of minutes, with relatively large amplitudes of 0.2-0.4 mag in optical bands, and their…
The Ising spin-glass model on the three-dimensional (d=3) hierarchical lattice with long-range ferromagnetic or spin-glass interactions is studied by the exact renormalization-group solution of the hierarchical lattice. The chaotic…
By employing Molecular Dynamics computer simulations, the phase behavior of systems of rodlike particles with varying degree of internal flexibility has been traced from the perfectly rigid rod limit till very flexible particles, and from…