Abstract
The statistical mechanics of directed linelike objects, such as directed polymers in an external field, strands of dipoles in both ferro- and electrorheological fluids, and flux lines in high-Tc superconductors, bears a close resemblance to the quantum mechanics of bosons in 2+1 dimensions. We show that single-component and binary mixture critical phenomena in these systems are in the universality class of three-dimensional uniaxial dipolar ferromagnets and ferroelectrics. Our results also apply to films of two superfluid species undergoing phase separation well below their λ-points near T=0. In the case of directed polymers and electrorheological fluids we analyze the effects of free ends occurring in the sample as well as a novel directionally-dependent compressibility.
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Kamien, R.D., Nelson, D.R. Directed polymer melts and quantum critical phenomena. J Stat Phys 71, 23–50 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01048086
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01048086