The Structure and Freezing of fluids interacting via the Gay-Berne (n-6) potentials

We have calculated the pair correlation functions of a fluid interacting via the Gay-Berne(n-6) pair potentials using the \PY integral equation theory and have shown how these correlations depend on the value of n which measures the sharpness of the repulsive core of the pair potential. These results have been used in the density-functional theory to locate the freezing transitions of these fluids. We have used two different versions of the theory known as the second-order and the modified weighted density-functional theory and examined the freezing of these fluids for $8 \leq n \leq 30$ and in the reduced temperature range lying between 0.65 and 1.25 into the nematic and the smectic A phases. For none of these cases smectic A phase was found to be stabilized though in some range of temperature for a given $n$ it appeared as a metastable state. We have examined the variation of freezing parameters for the isotropic-nematic transition with temperature and $n$. We have also compared our results with simulation results wherever they are available. While we find that the density-functional theory is good to study the freezing transitions in such fluids the structural parameters found from the \PY theory need to be improved particularly at high temperatures and lower values of $n$.Comment: 21 Pages (in RevTex4), 6 GIF and 4 Postscript format Fig

Causal Boundary Entropy From Horizon Conformal Field Theory

The quantum theory of near horizon regions of spacetimes with classical spatially flat, homogeneous and isotropic Friedman-Robertson-Walker geometry can be approximately described by a two dimensional conformal field theory. The central charge of this theory and expectation value of its Hamiltonian are both proportional to the horizon area in units of Newton's constant. The statistical entropy of horizon states, which can be calculated using two dimensional state counting methods, is proportional to the horizon area and depends on a numerical constant of order unity which is determined by Planck scale physics. This constant can be fixed such that the entropy is equal to a quarter of the horizon area in units of Newton's constant, in agreement with thermodynamic considerations.Comment: 11 pages, no figure