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arXiv · 1112.1464

The Smectic $A$-$C$ Phase Transition in Biaxial Disordered Environments

Leiming Chen·John Toner
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Abstract

We study the smectic $A$-$C$ phase transition in biaxial disordered environments, e.g. fully anisotropic aerogel. We find that both the $A$ and $C$ phases belong to the universality class of the "XY Bragg glass", and therefore have quasi-long-ranged translational smectic order. The phase transition itself belongs to a new universality class, which we study using an $ε=7/2-d$ expansion. We find a stable fixed point, which implies a continuous transition, the critical exponents of which we calculate.

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Leiming Chen, John Toner. 2011-12-07. The Smectic $A$-$C$ Phase Transition in Biaxial Disordered Environments. https://doi.org/10.1103/physreve.85.031703

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