Emergence of hexatic and long-range herringbone order in two-dimensional smectic liquid crystals : A Monte Carlo study

Abstract

Using a high resolution Monte Carlo simulation technique based on multi-histogram method and cluster-algorithm, we have investigated critical properties of a coupled XY model, consists of a six-fold symmetric hexatic and a three-fold symmetric herringbone field, in two dimensions. The simulation results demonstrate a series of novel continues transitions, in which both long-range hexatic and herringbone orderings are established simultaneously. It is found that the specific-heat anomaly exponents for some regions in coupling constants space are in excellent agreement with the experimentally measured exponents extracted from heat-capacity data near the smecticA-hexaticB transition of two-layer free standing films

References in corpus (5)

• Nature of Phase Transitions of Superconducting Wire Networks in a Magnetic Field
• Conformal Anomaly and Critical Exponents of the XY-Ising Model
• A Monte Carlo analysis of the phase transitions in the 2D, $J_1-J_2$ XY model
• Hexatic-Herringbone Coupling at the Hexatic Transition in Smectic Liquid Crystals: 4-$\epsilon$ Renormalization Group Calculations Revisited
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Cited by in corpus (4)

• Competing nematic interactions in a generalized XY model in two and three dimensions
• Emergent Potts Order in a Coupled Hexatic-Nematic XY model
• Multiple Transitions of Coupled Atom-Molecule Bosonic Mixtures in Two Dimensions
• Two-stage melting of an inter-component Potts long-range order in two dimensions