1,452 research outputs found
Anomalous Elasticity of Polymer Cholesterics
We show that polymer cholesterics have much longer pitches than comparable
short molecule cholesterics, due to their anomalous elasticity. The pitch
of a chiral mixture with concentration near the racemic (non-chiral)
concentration diverges like with (for short molecule cholesterics ). The short molecule law is
recovered for polymers of finite molecular length once the pitch is
longer than a length that diverges like with . Our predictions could be tested by measurements of the pitch in DNA.Comment: 12 pages, Plain TeX, (1 postscript figure, compressed, uuencoded and
appended to paper), minor corrections, IASSNS-HEP-94/4
A New Phase of Tethered Membranes: Tubules
We show that fluctuating tethered membranes with {\it any} intrinsic
anisotropy unavoidably exhibit a new phase between the previously predicted
``flat'' and ``crumpled'' phases, in high spatial dimensions where the
crumpled phase exists. In this new "tubule" phase, the membrane is crumpled in
one direction but extended nearly straight in the other. Its average thickness
is with the intrinsic size of the membrane. This phase
is more likely to persist down to than the crumpled phase. In Flory
theory, the universal exponent , which we conjecture is an exact
result. We study the elasticity and fluctuations of the tubule state, and the
transitions into it.Comment: 4 pages, self-unpacking uuencoded compressed postscript file with
figures already inside text; unpacking instructions are at the top of file.
To appear in Phys. Rev. Lett. November (1995
Dirty, Skewed, and Backwards: The Smectic - Phase Transition in Aerogel
We study the smectic AC transition in anisotropic and uniaxial disordered
environments, e.g., aerogel with an external field. We find very strange
behavior of translational correlations: the low-temperature, lower-symmetry
Smectic C phase is itless translationally ordered than the it high-temperature,
higher-symmetry Smectic A phase, with short-ranged and algebraic translational
correlations, respectively. Specifically, the A and C phase belong to the
quasi-long-ranged translationally ordered " XY Bragg glass '' and short-ranged
translationally ordered " m=1 Bragg glass '' phase, respectively. The AC phase
transition itself belongs to a new universality class, whose fixed points and
exponents we find in a d=5-epsilon expansion
What the New Liberal Government Should Know About "Public Property and the Public Trust in New Brunswick"
Minimal model for active nematics: quasi-long-range order and giant fluctuations
We propose a minimal microscopic model for active nematic particles similar
in spirit to the Vicsek model for self-propelled polar particles. In two
dimensions, we show that this model exhibits a Kosterlitz-Thouless-like
transition to quasi-long-range orientational order and that in this
non-equilibrium context, the ordered phase is characterized by giant density
fluctuations, in agreement with the predictions of Ramaswamy {\it et al.}
[Europhys. Lett. {\bf 62}, 196 (2003)].Comment: Submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett. 4 pages, 4 figure
Dissipate locally, couple globally: a sharp transition from decoupling to infinite range coupling in Josephson arrays with on-site dissipation
We study the T=0 normal to superconducting transition of Josephson arrays
with {\it on-site} dissipation. A perturbative renormalization group solution
is given. Like the previously studied case of {\it bond} dissipation (BD), this
is a "floating" to coupled (FC) phase transition. {\it Unlike} the BD
transition, at which {\it only} nearest-neighbor couplings become relevant,
here {\it all} inter-grain couplings, out to {\it infinitely} large distances,
do so simultaneously. We predict, for the first time in an FC transition, a
diverging spatial correlation length. Our results show the robustness of
floating phases in dissipative quantum systems.Comment: 7+ pages, 3 eps figures, Europhysics Letters preprint format, as
publishe
Sliding Columnar Phase of DNA-Lipid Complexes
We introduce a simple model for DNA-cationic-lipid complexes in which
galleries between planar bilayer lipid lamellae contain DNA 2D smectic lattices
that couple orientationally and positionally to lattices in neighboring
galleries. We identify a new equilibrium phase in which there are long-range
orientational but not positional correlations between DNA lattices. We discuss
properties of this new phase such as its X-ray structure factor S(r), which
exhibits unusual exp(- const.ln^2 r) behavior as a function of in-plane
separation r.Comment: This file contains 4 pages of double column text and one postscript
figure. This version includes interactions between dislocations in a given
gallery and presents an improved estimate of the decoupling temperature. It
is the published versio
Sliding Phases in XY-Models, Crystals, and Cationic Lipid-DNA Complexes
We predict the existence of a totally new class of phases in weakly coupled,
three-dimensional stacks of two-dimensional (2D) XY-models. These ``sliding
phases'' behave essentially like decoupled, independent 2D XY-models with
precisely zero free energy cost associated with rotating spins in one layer
relative to those in neighboring layers. As a result, the two-point spin
correlation function decays algebraically with in-plane separation. Our
results, which contradict past studies because we include higher-gradient
couplings between layers, also apply to crystals and may explain recently
observed behavior in cationic lipid-DNA complexes.Comment: 4 pages of double column text in REVTEX format and 1 postscript
figur
Book Reviews
Reviews of the following books: An Upriver Passamaquoddy by Allen J. Sockabasin; The Murder of Mary Bean and Other Stories by Elizabeth A. DeWolfe; American Silk, 1830-1930: Entrepremeurs and Artifacts by Jackqueline Field, Marjorie Senechal and Madelyn Shaw
Ground state properties of solid-on-solid models with disordered substrates
We study the glassy super-rough phase of a class of solid-on-solid models
with a disordered substrate in the limit of vanishing temperature by means of
exact ground states, which we determine with a newly developed minimum cost
flow algorithm. Results for the height-height correlation function are compared
with analytical and numerical predictions. The domain wall energy of a boundary
induced step grows logarithmically with system size, indicating the marginal
stability of the ground state, and the fractal dimension of the step is
estimated. The sensibility of the ground state with respect to infinitesimal
variations of the quenched disorder is analyzed.Comment: 4 pages RevTeX, 3 eps-figures include
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