Structural force in a presmectic liquid
The structural interaction in a presmectic film is analyzed theoretically using the Cartesian rather than the polar representation of the smectic order parameter. This representation diagonalizes the phenomenological Hamiltonian of the ordering and leads to a unified description of the mean-field interaction-first studied by de Gennes [Langmuir 6, 1448 (1990)]-and the fluctuation-induced interaction. The fluctuation-induced interaction turns out to be short-range, attractive, and unaffected by the apparent bidomain structure of the film, which controls the oscillatory mean-field interaction.
Ziherl
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J. Stefan Institute, Jamova 39, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia and Department of Physics, University of Ljubljana, Jadranska 19, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia.