External magnetic field-dependent tricritical points of uniaxial-to-biaxial nematic transition

External magnetic field-dependent behavior of tricritical points of uniaxial–biaxial nematic phase transition in a mixture of prolate and oblate molecules has been studied using the Landau phenomenological theory. Topological classification of phase diagrams in the field-temperature coordinates is performed using a sixth-order term in order parameter tensor. For both prolate and oblate molecules, the tricritical order parameters corresponding to the uniaxial–biaxial increase with the intensity of the external magnetic field. Field-induced paranematic phase has only been reported for prolate molecules, but for oblate molecules, field-induced splitting of the order parameter has been reported.     

Scaled particle equation of state for hard non-spherical molecules

Applications of the method of anti-symmetrized product of strongly orthogonal geminals (APSG) to the boron hydrides B₂H₆, B₄H₄, B₄H₁₀, B₅H₉, B₅H₁₁ and B₆H₁₀ are described. Minimal basis sets of Slater-type orbitals are employed throughout. The APSG method is found to act as a localization process, with the B-H (terminal) and B-H (bridge)-B geminals well localized and transferable. Generation of several valence structures for B₅H₉, B₅H₁₁ and B₆H₁₀ suggests that the framework geminals of the preferred structure are of the closed three-centre type, although structures involving open BBB framework geminals are less stable by only a few kcal mol^-1. The principal natural orbital of each geminal is similar to the corresponding orbital produced by various localization criteria, while the weakly occupied natural orbitals are also localized and involve anti-bonding interactions between the component atoms of the bond.     

Magnetic field induced pseudo phase transition in cadmium

Recent magnetostriction measurements in Cd showed anomalous behavior at about 25 kG. These data are shown to be consistent with a temperature and magnetic field version of Lifshitz's model for the ‘electron transitions’ associated with Fermi surface topology changes. The dependence of the model upon temperature and magnetic field direction is treated.     

Solid-fluid phase transition in multicomponent hard sphere systems: Interference amongst the watermelons

Appropriately weighted multicomponent small watermelon diagrams and their elementary derivatives are approximately summed and found to effect the solid-fluid phase transition.     

Solid-fluid phase transition in multicomponent hard sphere systems: Interference amongst the watermelons

Appropriately weighted multicomponent small watermelon diagrams and their elementary derivatives are approximately summed and found to effect the solid-fluid phase transition.     

Ultrasonic attenuation near the phase transition for the magnetic field induced excitonic phase in bismuth

The fluctuation contribution to the ultrasonic attenuation above T_c is shown to have a log T form similar to the log T components in properties of Kondo systems. The recent results by Mase et al. show this behaviour in bismuth.     

Magnetic field induced phase transition of a three-dimensional electron gas

Photoelectron energy distributions of Ni(100) have been calculated in the photon energy range 30 – 80 eV. A strong resonance due to interband transitions appears at 5 eV binding energy. Its connection to the experimentally observed resonance, interpreted as a many-body phenomenon, is discussed.     

Absence of the small tricritical deviation from the mean-field approximation for the isotropic-nematic phase transition

The tricritical behaviour of the isotropic-nematic phase transition is studied. The presence of two independent sixth-order terms in the free energy expansion breaks the conventional tricritical behaviour and eliminates the tricritical restriction for the deviation from the mean-field approximation.     

Is the percolation transition of hard spheres a thermodynamic phase transition?

In hard-sphere systems, there is a fluid-solid transition, but no gas-liquid transition. In the fluid region, however, one can find a purely geometric percolation transition, which is studied in detail. The van der Waals model of hard spheres is treated. In this model, a uniform negative background potential is added. This modification does not change the structure, but induces a gas-liquid transition. In fact, percolation and the gas-liquid transition can be related to each other.     

Lyapunov instability, local curvature, and the fluid-solid phase transition in two-dimensional particle systems

We study the relation between the Lyapunov spectrum and the multidimensional geometry of the potential energy surface in terms of the distribution of stable and unstable modes for different models. For this purpose we determined Lyapunov exponents for the so-called correlated cell model and its smooth generalization as a function of the density for various energies. In the smooth case averaged structural quantities, such as the fraction of unstable modes, the Gaussian curvature, and the Riemannian curvature were computed and compared to the mechanical instability of the system in the sense of Lyapunov. A similar analysis was also carried out for 36-disk systems representing various fluid and solid states. In all studied cases the most-positive Lyapunov exponent exhibits a maximum at the phase transition in agreement with results for the fluid-solid transition in many-particle systems.     

A systematic approach to the calculation of tricritical temperature with application to the nematic-smecticA phase transition

Using the Landau expansion equations have been found that allow for systematic calculations of tricritical temperature for a given molecular model. The theory has been applied to nematic-smecticA (NA) phase transition of liquid crystals. It has been shown exactly that the NA tricritical temperature depends only on the couplings between the two lowest order translational order parameters and the orientational degrees of freedom. Numerical results of Mayer and Lubensky for the NA tricritical point have been derived exactly. Also a stability condition of the obtained solution has been discussed.Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Fellow, 1985–1986     

Magnetic field induced phase branches of the superconducting transition in two-dimensional square π-loop arrays

Based on the results of explicit forms of free energy density for each possible arrangement of magnetization fluxes in large-scale two-dimensional （2D） square π-loop arrays given by Li et al [2007 Chin. Phys. 16 1450], the field-cooled superconducting phase transition is further investigated by analysing the free energy of the arrays with a simplified symmetrical model. Our analytical result is exactly the same as that obtained in Li＇s paper by means of numerical calculations. It is shown that the phase transition splits into two branches with either ferromagnetic or anti-ferromagnetic flux ordering, which depends periodically on the strength of external magnetic flux φe through each loop and monotonically on the screen parameter β of the loops in the arrays. In principle, the diagram of the phase branches is similar to that of its one-dimensional counterpart. The influence of thermal fluctuation on the flux ordering during the transition from normal to superconducting states of the π-loop arrays is also discussed.     

Pressure induced phase transition in PbSnTe

Hall coefficient R_H and resistivity ? for Pb_0.56Sn_0.44Te crystal were measured as a function of temperature and pressure in the region of the ferroelectric phase transition. It enabled to obtain the pressure dependence of the phase transition temperature. Analysis of the experimental data showed that the lattice anharmonicity gives the dominant contribution to the phase transition mechanism.     

Pressure induced phase transition in ZnS

The phase transition of ZnS from the zincblende (ZB) structure to the rocksalt (RS) structure is investigated by the ab initio plane-wave pseudopotential density functional theory method. It is found that the pressures for transition from the ZB structure to the RS structure are 17.5 GPa from total energy-volume data and 15.4 GPa from equal enthalpies, consistent with the experimental data. From the high pressure elastic constants obtained, we find that the ZB structure ZnS is unstable when the applied pressure is larger than 17 GPa. Moreover, the dependence of the normalized primitive cell volume V/V₀ on pressure P can also be successfully obtained.     

Application of the scaled particle theory to the glass transition of hard spheres

In a previous article [1], an improved approach to the scaled particle theory of Reiss et al. was presented. As a result, we obtained a Padé-like expression of the compressibility factor of the fluid state. That expression contains two parameters p ₁ and p ₂, which we were able to calculate. In this paper we find other sets of values for p ₁ and p ₂. Two of these sets yield equations of state which agree with the simulation results of the glassy states obtained by Woodcock and Speedy. The calculations are based on two assumptions: firstly, that second order phase transitions may occur and secondly, that a hard sphere glass contains a fluid-like and a solid-like part. As an additional result, we found an upper and a lower limit for the fluid densities at which glass transitions may occur.     

Order-disorder transition in the solid phase of a charged hard sphere model

We investigate the solid phases of the restricted primitive model (RPM). Monte Carlo simulations show the existence of an order-disorder transition from a substitutionally disordered face centered cubic lattice (fcc) to a new ordered fcc structure which is proposed as the ground state of the RPM at the close packing density. Our results suggest that the new phase might turn out in a new triple point in the RPM phase diagram involving three solid phases: CsCl, fcc ordered and fcc disordered structures. The order-disorder transition is also studied using the cell theory. The theory shows good agreement with the simulation results and suggests that the transition is weakly first order.