# Groupe de Physique Statistique

## Equipe 106, Institut Jean Lamour

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### Articles dans des revues à comité de lecture

 Chiral Symmetry Breaking in Bent-Core Liquid Crystals Longa L., PajÄ…k G., Wydro T. Phys. Rev. E Rapid Communications 79 (2009) 040701(R) DOI : 10.1103/PhysRevE.79.040701 ArXiv : arxiv:0902.0671 [PDF] By molecular modeling we demonstrate that the nematic long-range order discovered in bent-core liquid crystal systems should reveal further spatially homogeneous phases. Two of them are identified as a tetrahedratic nematic ($N_T$) phase with $D_{2d}$ symmetry and a chiral tetrahedratic nematic ($N_T^*$) phase with $D_2$ symmetry. These new phases were found for a lattice model with quadrupolar and octupolar anisotropic interactions using Mean Field theory and Monte Carlo simulations. The phase diagrams exhibit tetrahedratic ($T$), $N_T$ and $N_T^*$ phases, in addition to ordinary isotropic ($I$), uniaxial nematic ($N_U$) and biaxial nematic ($N_B$) phases. To our knowledge, this is the first molecular model with spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking in non-layered systems.