Phys. Rev. Lett. 58, 1660-1663 (1987)

                                            [Issue 16 - April 1987 ]

                                [ Previous article | Next article | Issue
16 contents ]

    View Page Images or PDF (323 kB)


Nonconvex interactions and the occurrence of modulated phases

     Mario Marchand, Kevin Hood, and Alain Caillé 
     Département de Physique et Centre de Recherche en Physique du Solide,
Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Québec J1K
     2R1, Canada

Received 24 October 1986

Nonconvex interparticle interactions are proposed as a mechanism for the
occurrence of modulated order in condensed matter. This is
examined by application of a recent numerical algorithm to two microscopic
models in which frustration is present only if the interparticle
interactions are nonconvex. A devil's staircase is found when the
particles, in the ground state, make use only of the convex part of the
interaction potential, whereas both first- and second-order transitions
are found when the region of nonconvexity is felt by some of the
particles.

©1987 The American Physical Society

URL: http://publish.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v58/p1660
PACS: 64.60.-i, 05.70.Fh