Stable quasicrystalline ground states

Abstract

We give a strong evidence that noncrystalline materials such as quasicrystals or incommensurate solids are not exceptions but rather are generic in some regions of a phase space. We show this by constructing classical lattice-gas models with translation-invariant, finite-range interactions and with a unique quasiperiodic ground state which is stable against small perturbations of two-body potentials. More generally, we provide a criterion for stability of nonperiodic ground states.