School of Physics
University of Hyderabad
India
Condensed Matter Group
International Centre for Theoretical Physics
Trieste
Italy
shenoy@ictp.it
We consider models for martensitic structural transitions with a smooth, displacive, unit-cell distortion, that have strain-tensor components as order parameters. The spontaneous structural distortions on cooling do not generate dislocations, and this no-defect or 'compatibility' condition, when included in a constrained minimization of the Ginzburg-Landau free energy, induces anisotropic, powerlaw interactions.
A reduced model is proposed of clock-like strain pseudospins interacting via such powerlaw interactions. Preliminary studies of the local meanfield equations (viewed as a coupled-map lattice) under cooling, suggest that elastic textures such as 'twins', or oriented domain-wall patterns, can have a metastable, glassy character.