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L Mederos

Publications and source records attributed to L Mederos.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Complex phase behavior induced by repulsive interactions

For a solid in which the interactions have a hard core plus a simple soft repulsive tail we show, using a perturbation theory, that the possible stable crystalline structures give rise to a rich phase behavior. We find two concomitant critical points each corresponding to phase transitions separating bcc and fcc structures, respectively, and the occurrence of a transition between fcc and bcc phases without change in density. This novel phenomenology may be relevant to the behavior of some metallic systems, colloids, and to water.

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Density-functional theory of inhomogeneous systems of hard spherocylinders

The smectic-A phase boundaries of a hard-spherocylinder fluid are calculated using a density-functional theory based on one proposed earlier by Somoza and Tarazona [Phys. Rev. A 41, 965 (1990)]. Our calculations do not employ the translation-rotation decoupling approximation used in previous density-functional theories. The calculated phase boundaries agree well with computer simulation results up to aspect ratios L/D approximately 5 and are in better agreement with the simulations than are previous theories. We generalize the model fluid by including long-range interactions with quadrupolar orientational symmetry, which are taken into account by mean-field approximation. For sufficiently large strength, these interactions produce a smectic-C phase, which undergoes either a continuous or weakly first-order transition to the smectic-A phase. The theory and numerical methods discussed here can be applied to the analysis of interfacial phenomena.

Journal Article↗