Condensate Formation in a Chiral Lattice Gas

TL;DR

This paper studies how chiral interactions in a binary lattice gas lead to various condensate shapes and phase coexistence, using simulations and analytical methods to explore structure, surface tension, and minimal free energy configurations.

Contribution

It introduces a model with chiral local interactions in a lattice gas and characterizes the resulting condensate shapes and phase behavior through combined simulations and analytical analysis.

Findings

Multiple phases with distinct tiling patterns at low temperature.

Coexistence of phases with different structures and symmetries.

Condensate shapes include quadrilaterals and octagons with specific orientations.

Abstract

We investigate the formation of condensates in a binary lattice gas in the presence of chiral interactions. These interactions differ between a given microscopic configuration and its mirror image. We consider a two dimensional lattice gas with nearest-neighbour interactions to which we add interactions involving favoured local structures that are chiral. We focus on favoured local structures that have the shape of the letter L and explore condensate formation through simulations and analytical calculations. At low temperature, this model can exhibit four different phases that are characterised by different periodic tiling patterns, depending on the strength of interactions and the chemical potential. When particle numbers are conserved, some of these phases can coexist. We analyse the structure and surface tension of interfaces between coexisting phases and determine the condensate shapes of minimal free energy. We show that these shapes can be quadrilaterals or octagons of different orientation and symmetry.