Re-entrant Disordered Phase in a System of Repulsive Rods on a Bethe-like Lattice

Abstract

We solve exactly a model of monodispersed rigid rods of length $k$ with repulsive interactions on the random locally tree like layered lattice. For $k\geq 4$ we show that with increasing density, the system undergoes two phase transitions: first from a low density disordered phase to an intermediate density nematic phase and second from the nematic phase to a high density re-entrant disordered phase. When the coordination number is $4$, both the phase transitions are continuous and in the mean field Ising universality class. For even coordination number larger than $4$, the first transition is discontinuous while the nature of the second transition depends on the rod length $k$ and the interaction parameters.