Related papers: Can liquid metal surfaces have hexatic order?
Realistic oxide materials are often semiconductors, in particular at elevated temperatures, and their surfaces contain undercoordiated atoms at structural defects such as steps and corners. Using hybrid density-functional theory and ab…
We study a quasi-one-dimensional fluid of hard dumbbells with continuous orientational degrees of freedom using an exact transfer-matrix formulation. The model allows for a complete analytical characterization of thermodynamic properties,…
The postulate of the existence of a jamming phase diagram (Liu and Nagel, Nature 396, 21 EP (1998aa)) provides a theoretical basis for the classification of a wide range of amorphous solids (colloidal, molecular and emulsion glasses,…
Snapshots of colloidal particles moving on disordered two-dimensional substrates can be used to extract equal-time many-body correlations in their positions. To understand the systematics of these correlations, we perform Monte Carlo…
We simulate colloids (radius $R \sim 1\mu$m) trapped at the interface between a cholesteric liquid crystal and an immiscible oil, at which the helical order (pitch p) in the bulk conflicts with the orientation induced at the interface,…
Asymptotic homogenisation is used to systematically derive reduced-order macroscopic models of conductive behaviour in spirally-wound layered materials in which the layers have very different conductivities. The problem is motivated by the…
The dielectric response of liquids reflects both, reorientation of single molecular dipoles and collective modes, i.e., dipolar cross-correlations. A recent theory predicts the latter to produce an additional slow peak in the dielectric…
Melting of two-dimensional (2D) equilibrium crystals, from superconducting vortex lattices to colloidal structures, is a complex phenomenon characterized by the sequential loss of positional and orientational order. Whereas melting…
We present the first resonant x-ray reflectivity measurements from a liquid surface. The surface structure of the liquid Hg-Au alloy system just beyond the solubility limit of 0.14at% Au in Hg had previously been shown to exhibit a unique…
We perform optical, surface anchoring, and textural studies of an organo-siloxane tetrapode material in the broad temperature range of the nematic phase. The optical, structural, and topological features are compatible with the uniaxial…
Large-scale atomistic calculations, using empirical potentials for modeling semiconductors, have been performed on a stressed system with linear surface defects like steps. Although the elastic limits of systems with surface defects remain…
Nanostructured ferroelectrics display exotic multidomain configurations resulting from the electrostatic and elastic boundary conditions they are subject to. While the ferroelectric domains appear frozen in experimental images, atomistic…
Using the LCLS facility at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, we have observed X-ray scattering from iron compressed with laser driven shocks to Earth-core like pressures above 400GPa. The data shows shots where melting is incomplete…
I show that two-dimensional nematic order in an active fluid film can be stable and long-ranged if exchange of particles and momentum with an ambient three-dimensional fluid is allowed. Number-conserving films present an instability, with a…
Surface-induced liquid crystalline phase transitions evoke fundamental interest and can provide deeper insight into the nature of low-dimensional phase transitions. Board-like conjugated polymers are particularly interesting because they…
We formulate a hydrodynamic theory of $p-$atic liquid crystals, namely two-dimensional anisotropic fluids endowed with generic $p-$fold rotational symmetry. Our approach, based on an order parameter tensor that directly embodies the…
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…
An atomic beam probe is used to study the structure and dynamics of quantized supercurrent vortex lines in YBa_{2}Cu_{3}O_{7-?} at temperatures up to within 0.7 K below T_{C}. Here we report the direct observation of a vortex configuration…
A supersolid is a system that presents long-range order and shear rigidity as a solid but which also supports a non-dissipative superflow as a superfluid. From an effective perspective, supersolids are identified with phases of matter that…
In an elegant paper, D. Nelson suggested a method to produce tetravalent colloids based on a tetrahedral configuration created on the surface of a spherical particle. It emerges from a two-dimensional nematic liquid crystal placed on a…