Finite-size effects at first-order isotropic-to-nematic transitions

Abstract

We present simulation data of first-order isotropic-to-nematic transitions in lattice models of liquid crystals and locate the thermodynamic limit inverse transition temperature $\epsilon_\infty$ via finite-size scaling. We observe that the inverse temperature of the specific heat maximum can be consistently extrapolated to $\epsilon_\infty$ assuming the usual $\alpha / L^d$ dependence, with $L$ the system size, $d$ the lattice dimension and proportionality constant $\alpha$. We also investigate the quantity $\epsilon_{L,k}$, the finite-size inverse temperature where $k$ is the ratio of weights of the isotropic to nematic phase. For an optimal value $k = k_{\rm opt}$, $\epsilon_{L,k}$ versus $L$ converges to $\epsilon_\infty$ much faster than $\alpha/L^d$, providing an economic alternative to locate the transition. Moreover, we find that $\alpha \sim \ln k_{\rm opt} / {\cal L}_\infty$, with ${\cal L}_\infty$ the latent heat density. This suggests that liquid crystals at first-order IN transitions scale approximately as $q$-state Potts models with $q \sim k_{\rm opt}$.Comment: To appear in Physical Review