Fluctuations and freezing in a one-dimensional liquid: Hg/sub 3-delta/AsF6

Many papers deal quite properly with systems at their critical dimensionality, d*. In such systems the competing forces between organization and disorder are nearly equally balanced and the analysis of the resulting situation requires some subtlety. Not surprisingly, the situation is somewhat simplified when the dimensionality falls below d*. For ordinary translational ordering of fluids (i.e., crystallization), d*=2. The properties of certain quasi-one-dimensional systems are explored, which since they are effectively below d*, resist the conventional crystalline order until abnormally low temperatures, and assume instead a state which is likened to a 1-dimensional liquid