Smectic-Ato -Cphase transition in isotropic disordered environments

Abstract

We study theoretically the smectic-$A$ to -$C$ phase transition in isotropic disordered environments. Surprisingly, we find that, as in the clean smectic-$A$ to -$C$ phase transition, smectic layer fluctuations do not affect the nature of the transition, in spite of the fact that they are much stronger in the presence of the disorder. As a result, we find that the universality class of the transition is that of the ``random field $XY$ model'' ($RFXY$).

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• Physical Review E - View - PDF
• arXiv (Cornell University) - View - PDF
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