SMECTIC-A, CRYSTALLINE AND COLUMNAR ORDERING IN THE SYSTEM OF HARD PARALLEL CYLINDERS

We study a system of hard parallel cylinders in the framework of the smoothed-density approximation (SDA). Using a bifurcation analysis, we argue that, apart from the nematic phase, smectic-A, solid (or crystalline smectic-B) and columnar phases should also occur in this system. We predict the following sequence of phase transitions: nematic-smectic-A at η* =η/η/cp = 0.31, smectic-A-solid (or smectic-B) at η*≈0.59 and solid (or smectic-B)-columnar at η*≈0.84, where ηcp= 0-9069 is the close-packing density. In our approach we cannot distinguish between a solid phase and a crystalline smectic-B phase. © 1990 Taylor and Francis Ltd.