Related papers: Frank's constant in the hexatic phase
We report the structure of transient fluctuations in the liquid phase of a two-dimensional system that exhibits several ordered phases with different symmetries. The density-temperature phase diagram of the system studied, composed of…
According to the Kosterlitz-Thouless-Halperin-Nelson-Young (KTHNY) theory, the transition from a solid to liquid in two dimensions proceeds through an orientationally ordered liquid-like hexatic phase. However, alternative mixed melting…
A disclination in a hexatic membrane favors the development of Gaussian curvature localized near its core. The resulting global structure of the membrane has mean curvature, which is disfavored by curvature energy. Thus a membrane with an…
Binding and unbinding of vortices drives Kosterlitz-Thouless phase transition in two-dimensional XY model. Here we investigate whether similar mechanism works in two-dimensional Heisenberg model, by using the fluctuation of skyrmion number…
The Ising-like anisotropy parameter $\delta$ in the Kondo necklace model is analyzed using the bond-operator method at zero and finite temperatures for arbitrary $d$ dimensions. A decoupling scheme on the double time Green's functions is…
We have used an extended Scaled-Particle Theory that incorporates four-body correlations through the fourth-order virial coefficient to analyse the orientational properties of a fluid of hard right-angle triangles. This fluid has been…
Thermoelastic phenomena associated with orientational phase transition in solid C60 are considered. Coupling of the order parameter with elastic strain is analyzed in the Landau theory of phase transitions. Wide range of possible…
We construct phase diagrams for charged rodlike colloids within the second-virial approximation as a function of rod concentration, salt concentration, and colloidal charge. Besides the expected isotropic-nematic transition, we also find…
By computer simulations of systems of ellipsoids, we study the influence of the isotropic/nematic phase transition on the direct correlation functions (DCF) in anisotropic fluids. The DCF is determined from the pair distribution function by…
The behavior of a thin film of nematic liquid crystal with unequal Frank constants is discussed. Distinct Frank constants are found to imply unequal core energies for $+1/2$ and $-1/2$ disclinations. Even so, a topological constraint is…
We present a detailed investigation of the probability density function (PDF) of order parameter fluctuations in the finite two-dimensional XY (2dXY) model. In the low temperature critical phase of this model, the PDF approaches a universal…
The temperature dependance of the action in the thin-wall and thick-wall limits is obtained analytically for the $\phi^6$ scalar potential. The nature of the phase transition is investigated from the quantum tunnelling regime at low…
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…
The static and dynamic properties of the isotropic XY-model $(s=1/2)$ on the inhomogeneous periodic chain, composed of \emph{N} segments with \emph{n} different exchange interactions and magnetic moments, in a transverse field \emph{h} are…
We report on a computer simulation study of a Lennard-Jones liquid confined in a narrow slit pore with tunable attractive walls. In order to investigate how freezing in this system occurs, we perform an analysis using different order…
Liquid crystals in two dimensions do not support long-ranged nematic order, but a quasi-nematic phase where the orientational correlations decay algebraically is possible. The transition from the isotropic to the quasi-nematic phase can be…
We resolve the old riddle related to the critical behavior of the heat capacity near the smectic A -- hexatic second order phase transition. Experiment suggests a "large" positive specific heat critical exponent inconsistent with the…
I describe new phases of a chiral liquid crystal with nematic and hexatic order. I find a conical phase, similar to that of a cholesteric in an applied magnetic field for Frank elastic constants $K_2>K_3$. I discuss the role of fluctuations…
We study the phase behavior of a system of charged colloidal particles that are electrostatically bound to an almost flat interface between two fluids. We show that, despite the fact that our experimental system consists of only $10^{3}$ -…
The phase diagram of two-dimensional continuous particle systems is studied using Event-Chain Monte Carlo. For soft disks with repulsive power-law interactions $\propto r^{-n}$ with $n \gtrsim 6$, the recently established hard-disk melting…