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Updated: Mar 31, 2026

Orientational Transition in a Liquid Crystal Triggered by the Thermodynamic Growth of Interfacial Wetting Sheets
Published on: May 15, 2017
Emergent tilt order in Dirac polymer liquids
Anton Souslov1, Benjamin Loewe1, Paul M Goldbart1
1School of Physics, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332, USA.
This study explores zigzagging polymers using a quantum many-fermion analogy, revealing a tilted ordered phase where polymers favor specific directions. This provides insights into polymer liquid behavior and phase transitions.
Area of Science:
- Condensed matter physics
- Statistical mechanics
- Polymer physics
Background:
- Directed polymers with bending rigidity exhibit complex conformations.
- Their statistics in the continuum limit relate to the Dirac equation for imaginary mass particles.
Purpose of the Study:
- Investigate the behavior of a liquid of zigzagging two-dimensional directed polymers.
- Explore the potential for ordered phases and phase transitions in such systems.
Main Methods:
- Utilizing a quantum many-fermion analogy to model polymer liquid statistics.
- Employing a self-consistent approximation to predict phases and compute properties.
Main Results:
- Prediction of a tilted ordered phase where polymers exhibit directional preference (zigging over zagging).
- Computation of the phase diagram and key response functions for the polymer liquid.
Conclusions:
- The quantum many-fermion analogy provides a powerful tool for studying polymer liquids.
- Fluctuations play a significant role in the observed phenomena and phase behavior.
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