No Arabic abstract
A system of hard rigid rods of length $k$ on hypercubic lattices is known to undergo two phases transitions when chemical potential is increased: from a low density isotropic phase to an intermediate density nematic phase, and on further increase to a high-density phase with no orientational order. In this paper, we argue that, for large $k$, the second phase transition is a first order transition with a discontinuity in density in all dimensions greater than $1$. We show the chemical potential at the transition is $approx k ln [k /ln k]$ for large $k$, and that the density of uncovered sites drops from a value $ approx (ln k)/k^2$ to a value of order $exp(-ak)$, where $a$ is some constant, across the transition. We conjecture that these results are asymptotically exact, in all dimensions $dgeq 2$. We also present evidence of coexistence of nematic and disordered phases from Monte Carlo simulations for rods of length $9$ on the square lattice.
We study the phase diagram of a system of $2times2times2$ hard cubes on a three dimensional cubic lattice. Using Monte Carlo simulations, we show that the system exhibits four different phases as the density of cubes is increased: disordered, layered, sublattice ordered, and columnar ordered. In the layered phase, the system spontaneously breaks up into parallel slabs of size $2times L times L$ where only a very small fraction cubes do not lie wholly within a slab. Within each slab, the cubes are disordered; translation symmetry is thus broken along exactly one principal axis. In the solid-like sublattice ordered phase, the hard cubes preferentially occupy one of eight sublattices of the cubic lattice, breaking translational symmetry along all three principal directions. In the columnar phase, the system spontaneously breaks up into weakly interacting parallel columns of size $2times 2times L$ where only a very small fraction cubes do not lie wholly within a column. Within each column, the system is disordered, and thus translational symmetry is broken only along two principal directions. Using finite size scaling, we show that the disordered-layered phase transition is continuous, while the layered-sublattice and sublattice-columnar transitions are discontinuous. We construct a Landau theory written in terms of the layering and columnar order parameters, which is able to describe the different phases that are observed in the simulations and the order of the transitions. Additionally, our results near the disordered-layered transition are consistent with the $O(3)$ universality class perturbed by cubic anisotropy as predicted by the Landau theory.
Competing interactions and geometric frustration provide favourable conditions for exotic states of matter. Such competition often causes multiple phase transitions as a function of temperature and can lead to magnetic structures that break inversion symmetry, thereby inducing ferroelectricity [1-4]. Although this phenomenon is understood phenomenologically [3-4], it is of great interest to have a conceptually simpler system in which ferroelectricity appears coincident with a single magnetic phase transition. Here we report the first such direct transition from a paramagnetic and paraelectric phase to an incommensurate multiferroic in the triangular lattice antiferromagnet RbFe(MoO4)2 (RFMO). A magnetic field extinguishes the electric polarization when the symmetry of the magnetic order changes and ferroelectricity is only observed when the magnetic structure has chirality and breaks inversion symmetry. Multiferroic behaviour in RFMO provides a theoretically tractable example of ferroelectricity from competing spin interactions. A Landau expansion of symmetry-allowed terms in the free energy demonstrates that the chiral magnetic order of the triangular lattice antiferromagnet gives rise to a pseudoelectric field, whose temperature dependence agrees with that observed experimentally.
We study a mass transport model, where spherical particles diffusing on a ring can stochastically exchange volume $v$, with the constraint of a fixed total volume $V=sum_{i=1}^N v_i$, $N$ being the total number of particles. The particles, referred to as $p$-spheres, have a linear size that behaves as $v_i^{1/p}$ and our model thus represents a gas of polydisperse hard rods with variable diameters $v_i^{1/p}$. We show that our model admits a factorized steady state distribution which provides the size distribution that minimizes the free energy of a polydisperse hard rod system, under the constraints of fixed $N$ and $V$. Complementary approaches (explicit construction of the steady state distribution on the one hand ; density functional theory on the other hand) completely and consistently specify the behaviour of the system. A real space condensation transition is shown to take place for $p>1$: beyond a critical density a macroscopic aggregate is formed and coexists with a critical fluid phase. Our work establishes the bridge between stochastic mass transport approaches and the optimal polydispersity of hard sphere fluids studied in previous articles.
We study the Bethe approximation for a system of long rigid rods of fixed length k, with only excluded volume interaction. For large enough k, this system undergoes an isotropic-nematic phase transition as a function of density of the rods. The Bethe lattice, which is conventionally used to derive the self-consistent equations in the Bethe approximation, is not suitable for studying the hard-rods system, as it does not allow a dense packing of rods. We define a new lattice, called the random locally tree-like layered lattice, which allows a dense packing of rods, and for which the approximation is exact. We find that for a 4-coordinated lattice, k-mers with k>=4 undergo a continuous phase transition. For even coordination number q>=6, the transition exists only for k >= k_{min}(q), and is first order.
Phase transition of the Ising model is investigated on a planar lattice that has a fractal structure. On the lattice, the number of bonds that cross the border of a finite area is doubled when the linear size of the area is extended by a factor of four. The free energy and the spontaneous magnetization of the system are obtained by means of the higher-order tensor renormalization group method. The system exhibits the order-disorder phase transition, where the critical indices are different from that of the square-lattice Ising model. An exponential decay is observed in the density matrix spectrum even at the critical point. It is possible to interpret that the system is less entangled because of the fractal geometry.