Published March 7, 1988 | Version v1
Journal article

Different perspective of the Kosterlitz-Thouless phase transition

  • 1. Center for Nonlinear Studies, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545

Description

A heuristic argument predicting the existence and critical temperature of a phase transition in the Coulomb gas in any dimensionality D>1 is advanced. Numerical simulations are reported, corroborating these predictions in two and three dimensions. They lead to an interpretation of the Kosterlitz-Thouless transition, different from the standard one, of dipole dissociation. In three dimensions, the transition is interpreted as the first-order liquid-gas one, across which the density is discontinuous

Additional details

Publishing Information

Journal Title
Phys. Rev. Lett.
Journal Volume
60
Journal Issue
10
Series
Phys. Rev. Lett.
Journal Page Range
875-878
ISSN
0031-9007
CODEN
PRLTA