Reply to comment on ``Competing Interactions, the Renormalization Group and the Isotropic-Nematic Phase Transition''

TL;DR

This paper defends the original claim that a specific model exhibits an isotropic-nematic phase transition in the Kosterlitz-Thouless class, countering criticisms based on stripe phase fluctuation analysis.

Contribution

It clarifies that the model by Barci and Stariolo indeed undergoes an isotropic-nematic transition, despite criticisms related to stripe phase fluctuation behavior.

Findings

The model exhibits an isotropic-nematic phase transition.

The transition belongs to the Kosterlitz-Thouless universality class.

Criticism based on stripe phase fluctuations does not invalidate the transition.

Abstract

The focus of our work is to identify conditions for the presence of an isotropic-nematic phase transition in the context of a generic system with isotropic competing interactions. The comment 0709.4205 criticizes our results by showing that the low temperature fluctuations of a stripe phase in 2d diverge linearly in the thermodynamic limit. The analysis is restricted to the stripe phase and does not apply to the central result of our letter. We show, contrary to what is suggested in the comment, that the model introduced by D. G. Barci and D. A. Stariolo in PRL98, 200604 (2007) undergoes an isotropic-nematic phase transition in the Kosterlitz-Thouless universality class.