Interactions on spherical lattices

Arrangement of particles confined to the surface of a sphere is a central problem in many fields of research, from physics and materials science to computational problems. Due to topological constraints, the resulting spherical lattices always contain defects which, along with the curved geometry of spherical systems and their intrinsically finite size, lead to properties that can be fundamentally different from lattices in flat space. We develop theoretical tools to analyze and classify structural ordering of different spherical lattices. Furthermore, we use numerical minimization methods to study systems with anisotropic interactions, such as dipole or quadrupole interaction, positionally fixed to spherical lattices and explore the symmetries and geometric properties of their orientational order.

Selected papers

• A. Gnidovec and S. Čopar, Long-range order in quadrupolar systems on spherical surfaces, Soft Matter (2021). [Link] [PDF].

• A. Gnidovec and S. Čopar Orientational ordering of point dipoles on a sphere, Phys. Rev. B 102, 075416 (2020) [Link] [PDF].

• A. Lošdorfer Božič, S. Čopar, Spherical structure factor and classification of hyperuniformity on the sphere, Phys. Rev. E, 99, 032601 (2019). [Link] [PDF].