Mean-Field Theory of Quasicrystalline Order

Abstract

A simple natural Landau theory of two- or three-component systems is described, which appears to give a region of the phase diagram in which quasicrystalline ordering is the state of lowest free energy. The quasicrystals are stabilized by special geometric relations between the length scales characterizing the components. Three components are required to stabilize a two-dimensional quasicrystal (a Penrose tiling) but two components suffice to stabilize an icosahedral three-dimensional quasicrystal.