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Book Chapter10.1007/3-7643-7565-5_5

Criterion for Tricritical Points in Liquid Crystal Phases

Giovanni De Matteis,Epifanio G. Virga-2006-01-01-Progress in nonlinear differential equations and their applications
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TL;DRAbstract

We propose a criterion to find the symmetric tricritical points of an ordering phase transition in liquid crystals described by more than one scalar order parameter. Our criterion extends the one already put forward in the literature, which is based on the classical Griffiths’s criterion valid when all phases are described by a single order parameter. When applied to a recently proposed model for biaxial liquid crystals, the criterion presented here predicts the existence of a new tricritical point.

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We propose a criterion to find the symmetric tricritical points of an ordering phase transition in liquid crystals described by more than one scalar order parameter. Our criterion extends the one already put forward in the literature, which is based on the classical Griffiths’s criterion valid when all phases are described by a single order parameter. When applied to a recently proposed model for biaxial liquid crystals, the criterion presented here predicts the existence of a new tricritical point.

Keywords

Tricritical pointLiquid crystalScalar (mathematics)Phase transitionCondensed matter physicsThermodynamicsOrder (exchange)Physics

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