Boundary effects in chiral polymer hexatics
Boundary effects in liquid-crystalline phases can be large due to long-ranged orientational correlations. We show that the chiral-hexatic phase can be locked into an apparent three-dimensional N+6 phase via such effects. Simple numerical estimates suggest that the recently discovered "polymer hexatic" may actually be this locked phase.
Kamien
RD
Departments of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA.
Levine
AJ