Emergent Potts Order in a Coupled Hexatic-Nematic XY model

Abstract

Addressing the nature of an unexpected smectic-A' phase in liquid crystal 54COOBC films, we perform large scale Monte Carlo simulations of a coupled hexatic-nematic XY model. The resulting finite-temperature phase diagram reveals a small region with composite Potts ${\mathbb{Z}}_3$ order above the vortex binding transition; this phase is characterized by relative hexatic-nematic ordering though both variables are disordered. The system develops algebraic hexatic and nematic order only at a lower temperature. This multi-step melting scenario agrees well with the experimental observations of a sharp specific heat anomaly that emerges above the onset of hexatic positional order. We therefore propose that the smectic-A' phase is characterized by composite Potts order and bound-states of fractional vortices.

22 pages, 10 figures, 1 table

References in corpus (18)

• "Deconfined" quantum critical points
• Theory of Electron Nematic Order in LaOFeAs
• Ising and Spin orders in Iron-based Superconductors
• Octupolar ordering of classical kagome antiferromagnets in two and three dimensions
• Superfluidity and phase transitions in a resonant Bose gas
• Deconfinement of Vortices with Continuously Variable Fractions of the Unit Flux Quanta in Two-Gap Superconductors
• Dipolar order by disorder in the classical Heisenberg antiferromagnet on the kagome lattice
• New ordered phases in a class of generalized XY models
• Ising transition in the two-dimensional quantum $J_1-J_2$ Heisenberg model
• Emergent supersymmetry at the Ising-Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless multicritical point
• The Binder Cumulant at the Kosterlitz-Thouless Transition
• Competing nematic interactions in a generalized XY model in two and three dimensions
• Deconfinement transitions in a generalised XY model
• Intertwined and vestigial order with ultracold atoms in multiple cavity modes
• Hybrid Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless and Ising topological phase transition in the generalized two-dimensional XY model using tensor networks
• Quantum phases of a one-dimensional Majorana-Bose-Hubbard model
• Quantum and Thermal Phase Transitions in a Bosonic Atom-Molecule Mixture in a Two-dimensional Optical Lattice
• Monte Carlo simulation of an strongly coupled XY model in three dimensions

Cited by in corpus (10)

• Prediction of time-reversal-symmetry breaking fermionic quadrupling condensate in twisted bilayer graphene
• Cascade of vestigial orders in two-component superconductors: nematic, ferromagnetic, s-wave charge-4e, and d-wave charge-4e states
• Effective model and Magnetic Properties of the Resistive Electron Quadrupling State
• Phase diagram of generalized XY model using tensor renormalization group
• Strain-tuned quantum criticality in electronic Potts-nematic systems
• Three-state Potts nematic order in stacked frustrated spin models with SO(3) symmetry
• Emergent topological ordered phase for the Ising-XY Model revealed by cluster-updating Monte-Carlo method
• Nematic correlations and nematic Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition in spin-1 kagome lattice antiferromagnets
• Two-stage melting of an inter-component Potts long-range order in two dimensions
• Fate of Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless Paired Phase in Coupled $XY$ Models