What is it about?
Symmetry breaking is crucial for understanding the world. The broken symmetry of a macroscopic ensemble typically aligns with the symmetry of the constituent entities, such as the uniaxial symmetry found in nematic liquid crystals composed of rodlike molecules. This paper presents a counterintuitive instance of uniaxial symmetry arising from the self-assembly of isotropic entities.
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Why is it important?
This work highlights the limitations of our intuition in predicting the structure and properties of ensembles composed of a large number of entities, even in a straightforward context. The computer simulation further illustrated the challenges posed by orders arising from entropy. Regarding the research methodology, the adoption of the antiferroic many-state Potts model can be applied to more realistic problems in self-assembly.
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This page is a summary of: Uniaxial ordering by self-assembly of isotropic octahedral junctions, The Journal of Chemical Physics, June 2025, American Institute of Physics,
DOI: 10.1063/5.0269620.
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