LIQUIDS, CRYSTALS AND LIQUID CRYSTALS. (cover story)

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    • Subject Terms:
      FUSION (Phase transformation); LIQUIDS; LIQUID crystals; CRYSTALS; SUPERCONDUCTORS; FLUIDS; LIGHT sources
    • Abstract:
      The article discusses the concepts developed to explain melting in two dimensions and multicritical phenomena in three dimensions, which led to the modeling of smectic liquid crystals. These models help in the understanding of such physical systems as rare as earth magnets, superconductors and biological systems. For many decades, physicists have realized that an intermediate state of matter is possible. In such a state the atoms or molecules are distributed at random, as in fluid or glass, but the system is orientationally anisotropic on a macroscopic scale, as in a crystalline solid. INSET: Smectic phases..