Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: The melting of stripe-forming systems involves changes in connectivity that are not fully captured by conventional structural and orientational descriptors. We investigate a two-dimensional model with competing interactions whose low-temperature phase consists of one-particle-thick stripes. Molecular dynamics simulations along seven heating isochores are analyzed using thermodynamic, orientational, dynamical, and graph-based observables. Heating produces a multistage reconstruction in which the loss of stripe alignment and the reorganization of filament connectivity occur over distinct temperature ranges. Density controls whether the disordered filaments fragment into finite polymer-like clusters or remain joined in a dynamically fluid, system-spanning network. The topological observables distinguish these outcomes, which are not resolved by the thermodynamic and orientational responses alone. Thus, the same ordered stripe microphase can melt into topologically distinct fluids selected by density.
Source: Physical review. E
DOI: 10.1103/w3lf-h7nt
Author: José Rafael Bordin
Language: English
Subfield: Materials Chemistry
Field: Materials Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
Award: G7085363949
OpenAlex ID: W7202369523
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