Finite size effects and aging near a critical point

Sylvain Joubaud (1) , Artyom Petrosyan (1) , Sergio Ciliberto (2)

1 ENSL, Laboratoire de Physique
2 Laboratoire de Physique

The orientation fluctuations of the director of a liquid crystal are measured, by a sensitive polarization interferometer, close to the Fréedericksz transition, which is a second order transition driven by an electric field. We show that near the critical value of the field the spatially averaged order parameter has a generalized Gumbel distribution instead of a Gaussian one. The latter is recovered away from the critical point. We also show that after a quench at the critical point the system presents aging properties.

Mots clés: Physical Sciences

Sylvain Joubaud, Artyom Petrosyan, Sergio Ciliberto. Finite size effects and aging near a critical point. Philosophical Magazine, 2008, 88 (33-35), pp.4189-4196. ⟨10.1080/14786430802304618⟩. ⟨hal-00513930⟩