Fluctuations and Freezing in a One-Dimensional Liquid: Hg_3-δAsF₆

Abstract

Many of the papers of this conference deal quite properly with systems at their critical dimensionality, d. (See, for example, the contributions of Young, Villain, Als-Nielsen, Litster, and Weeks.) 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. In this paper we explore the properties of certain quasi-one-dimensional systems, which since they are effectively below d, resist the conventional crystalline order until abnormally low temperatures, and assume instead a state which we liken to a 1-dimensional liquid.