Fibrillar templates and soft phases in systems with short-range dipolar and long-range interactions

TL;DR

This paper investigates how particles with short-range dipolar attraction and long-range repulsion form filamentary patterns and checkerboard states at different temperatures, with implications for high-temperature superconductors.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed analysis of thermal fluctuations in systems with competing interactions, revealing the emergence of filamentary templates and dynamic checkerboard states.

Findings

Filamentary patterns persist at high temperatures.

Checkerboard states appear at intermediate temperatures.

Implications for cuprate superconducting materials.

Abstract

We analyze the thermal fluctuations of particles that have a short-range dipolar attraction and a long-range repulsion. In an inhomogeneous particle density region, or "soft phase," filamentary patterns appear which are destroyed only at very high temperatures. The filaments act as a fluctuating template for correlated percolation in which low-energy excitations can move through the stable pattern by local rearrangements. At intermediate temperatures, dynamically averaged checkerboard states appear. We discuss possible implications for cuprate superconducting and related materials.