Related papers: Topology and Nematic Ordering II: Observable Criti…
We consider the weakly first order phase transition between the isotropic and ordered phases of nematics in terms of the behavior of topological line defects. Analytical and Monte Carlo results are presented for a new coarse-grained lattice…
In this chapter we discuss aspects of the quantum critical behavior that occurs at a quantum phase transition separating a topological phase from a conventionally ordered one. We concentrate on a family of quantum lattice models, namely…
Spontaneous onset of a low temperature topologically ordered phase in a 2-dimensional (2D) lattice model of uniaxial liquid crystal (LC) was debated extensively pointing to a suspected underlying mechanism affecting the RG flow near the…
Motivated by recent experiments, the isotropic-nematic phase transition in chromonic liquid crystals is studied. As temperature decreases, nematic nuclei nucleate, grow, and coalesce, giving rise to tactoid microstructures in an isotropic…
In equilibrium hard-rod fluids, and in effective hard-rod descriptions of anisotropic soft-particle systems, the transition from the isotropic (I) phase to the nematic phase (N) is observed above the rod aspect ratio L/D = 3.70 as predicted…
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…
Using a simple model of a frustrated helimagnet, the critical behavior is numerically investigated for planar or isotropic spins, and for cases of one or two chiral order parameters. The helical structure in this model arises from the…
The critical behavior of many physical systems involves two competing $n^{}_1-$ and $n^{}_2-$component order-parameters, ${\bf S}^{}_1$ and ${\bf S}^{}_2$, respectively, with $n=n^{}_1+n^{}_2$. Varying an external control parameter $g$,…
The two dimensional electron gas (2DEG) in moderate magnetic fields in ultra-clean AlAs-GaAs heterojunctions exhibits transport anomalies suggestive of a compressible, anisotropic metallic state. Using scaling arguments and Monte Carlo…
At low temperatures, some lattice spin models with simple ferromagnetic or antiferromagnetic interactions (for example nearest-neighbour interaction being isotropic in spin space on a bipartite three-dimensional lattice) produce…
We present new results for the ordering process of a two-dimensional Ising model with anisotropic frustrating next-nearest-neighbor interactions. We concentrate on a specific wide temperature and parameter region to confirm the existence of…
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 spontaneous breaking of rotational symmetry in the helical surface state of three-dimensional topological insulators due to strong electron-electron interactions, focusing on time-reversal invariant nematic order. Owing to the…
For two-patch particles in two dimensions, we find that the coupling of anisotropic patchy interactions and the triangular lattice leads to novel phase behaviors. For asymmetric patch-patch (PP) and nonpatch-nonpatch (NN) interactions, the…
The electronic nematic phase occurs when the point-group symmetry of the lattice structure is broken, due to electron-electron interactions. We study a model for the nematic phase on a square lattice with emphasis on the phase transition…
We study a minimal model of a system with coexisting nematic and polar orientational orders, where one field tends to order and the other prefers isotropy. For strong coupling, the ordered field aligns the isotropic one, locking their…
We propose a lattice statistical model to investigate the phase diagrams and the soft responses of nematic liquid-crystal elastomers. Using suitably scaled infinite-range interactions, we obtain exact self-consistent equations for the…
Single crystal nematic elastomers undergo a transition from a strongly ordered phase N to an "isotropic" phase I. We show that: (a) samples produced under tension by the Finkelmann procedure are intrinsically anisotropic and should show a…
We use an infinite-range Maier-Saupe model, with two sets of local quadrupolar variables and restricted orientations, to investigate the global phase diagram of a coupled system of two nematic subsystems. The free energy and the equations…
The isotropic-to-nematic transition in a two-dimensional fluid of hard needles is studied using grand canonical Monte Carlo simulations, multiple histogram reweighting, and finite size scaling. The transition is shown to be of the…