No Arabic abstract
The critical behavior of self-assembled rigid rods on a square lattice was recently reinvestigated by Almarza et al. [Phys. Rev. E 82, 061117 (2010)]. Based on the Binder cumulants and the value of the critical exponent of the correlation length, the authors found that the isotropic-nematic phase transition occurring in the system is in the two-dimensional Ising universality class. This conclusion contrasts with that of a previous study [Lopez et al., Phys. Rev. E 80, 040105 (R) (2009)] which indicates that the transition at intermediate density belongs to the q = 1 Potts universality class. Almarza et al. attributed the discrepancy to the use of the density as the control parameter by Lopez et al. The present work shows that this suggestion is not sufficient, and that the discrepancy arises solely from the use of different statistical ensembles. Finally, the necessity of making corrections to the scaling functions in the canonical ensemble is discussed.
Using Monte Carlo simulations and finite-size scaling analysis, the critical behavior of self-assembled rigid rods on triangular and honeycomb lattices at intermediate density has been studied. The system is composed of monomers with two attractive (sticky) poles that, by decreasing temperature or increasing density, polymerize reversibly into chains with three allowed directions and, at the same time, undergo a continuous isotropic-nematic (IN) transition. The determination of the critical exponents, along with the behavior of Binder cumulants, indicate that the IN transition belongs to the q=1 Potts universality class.
Monte Carlo simulations and finite-size scaling analysis have been carried out to study the critical behavior in a two-dimensional system of particles with two bonding sites that, by decreasing temperature or increasing density, polymerize reversibly into chains with discrete orientational degrees of freedom and, at the same time, undergo a continuous isotropic-nematic (IN) transition. A complete phase diagram was obtained as a function of temperature and density. The numerical results were compared with mean field (MF) and real space renormalization group (RSRG) analytical predictions about the IN transformation. While the RSRG approach supports the continuous nature of the transition, the MF solution predicts a first-order transition line and a tricritical point, at variance with the simulation results.
We argue that a system of straight rigid rods of length k on square lattice with only hard-core interactions shows two phase transitions as a function of density, rho, for k >= 7. The system undergoes a phase transition from the low-density disordered phase to a nematic phase as rho is increased from 0, at rho = rho_c1, and then again undergoes a reentrant phase transition from the nematic phase to a disordered phase at rho = rho_c2 < 1.
The statistical thermodynamics of straight rigid rods of length $k$ on triangular lattices was developed on a generalization in the spirit of the lattice-gas model and the classical Guggenheim-DiMarzio approximation. In this scheme, the Helmholtz free energy and its derivatives were written in terms of the order parameter $delta$, which characterizes the nematic phase occurring in the system at intermediate densities. Then, using the principle of minimum free energy with $delta$ as a parameter, the main adsorption properties were calculated. Comparisons with Monte Carlo simulations and experimental data were performed in order to evaluate the reaches and limitations of the theoretical model.
The well known Sandpile model of self-organized criticality generates avalanches of all length and time scales, without tuning any parameters. In the original models the external drive is randomly selected. Here we investigate a drive which depends on the present state of the system, namely the effect of favoring sites with a certain height in the deposition process. If sites with height three are favored, the system stays in a critical state. Our numerical results indicate the same universality class as the original model with random depositition, although the stationary state is approached very differently. In constrast, when favoring sites with height two, only avalanches which cover the entire system occur. Furthermore, we investigate the distributions of sites with a certain height, as well as the transient processes of the different variants of the external drive.