Cusp singularities in the distribution of orientations of asymmetrically-pivoted hard discs on a lattice

Abstract

We study a system of equal-sized circular discs each with an asymmetrically placed pivot at a fixed distance from the center. The pivots are fixed at the vertices of a regular triangular lattice. The discs can rotate freely about the pivots, with the constraint that no discs can overlap with each other. Our Monte Carlo simulations show that the one-point probability distribution of orientations shows multiple cusp-like singularities. We determine the exact positions and qualitative behavior of these singularities. In addition to these geometrical singularities, we also find that the system shows order-disorder transitions, with a disordered phase at large lattice spacings, a phase with spontaneously broken orientational lattice symmetry at small lattice spacings, and an intervening Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless phase in between.