Phase behavior of a lattice-gas model for biaxial nematics.

We employ a lattice-gas extension of the Maier-Saupe model with discrete orientation states to study the phase behavior of a statistical model for biaxial nematogenic units in mean-field theory. The phase behavior of the system is investigated in terms of the strength of isotropic interaction between anisotropic objects, as well as the degree of biaxiality and the concentration of those units. We obtain phase diagrams with isotropic phases and stable biaxial and uniaxial nematic structures, various phase coexistences, many types of critical and multicritical behaviors, such as ordinary vapor-liquid critical points, critical end points, and tricritical points, and distinct Landau-like multicritical points. Our results widen the possibilities of relating the phenomenological coefficients of the Landau-de Gennes expansion to microscopic parameters, allowing an improved interpretation of theoretical fittings to experimental data.