The ferroelectric transition of dipolar hard spheres.
We investigate by Monte Carlo simulation the size dependence of the variation of the polarization and the dielectric constant with temperature for dipolar hard spheres at the two densities rho sigma3=0.80 and 0.88. From the crossing of the fourth-order cumulant for different system sizes first more precise estimates of the ferroelectric transition temperatures are obtained. Theoretical approaches, when predicting an ordering transition, are shown to generally overestimate the critical temperature.
Weis
J-J
JJ
Laboratoire de Physique Théorique, Unite Mixte de Recherche 8627 Bâtiment 210, Université Paris-Sud, 91405 Orsay Cedex, France. jean-jacques.weis@th.u-psud.fr