Department of Physics

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Physics is one of those departments with which North Bengal University started its journey in the year 1962. At present there are nine faculty members and ten non-teaching employees in the department. The department has active research groups in the field of (a) Liquid Crystal, (b) Relativity, Cosmology, and Astrophysics, (c) High-energy Heavy-ion Interaction and Cosmic-ray Physics, and (d) Solid-state devices. Several research projects sponsored by the DST, DAE, UGC, and Tea Research Board are running in the department. In the year 2003 the department received a financial support under the FIST programme from the DST, Govt. of India. The department offers both M.Sc. and Ph.D. courses. A semester system is followed in the M.Sc. level, with three different areas of specialization namely, Condensed Matter Physics, Electronics and Nuclear and Particle Physics, out of which a student can choose one. The annual intake capacity in M.Sc. is 40 students. In the Ph.D. programme of the department right now 25 research students are enrolled under the supervision of different faculty members. Almost all faculty members are involved in intra and inter-university national and international collaborations of scientific research. The department houses one IUCAA Resource Centre, a Data Centre for Observational Astronomy, six teaching laboratories, several research laboratories and one departmental library. From time to time the department organizes Seminars, Symposia, Conferences, Schools, Refresher Courses, and Outreach Programs.

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    Calorimetric study of an induced nematic to smectic A phase transition in a binary system of two smectogens: Existence of double tricritical points
    (University of North Bengal, 2025-03) Parvin, Apsari; Das, Malay Kumar
    In this work, we investigate a series of binary mixtures comprising two smectogenic compounds, 5DBT (containing terminal group, NCS and exhibiting smectic A1 phase) and 10OCB (having terminal group, CN and exhibiting smectic Ad phase). The binary system exhibits an induced N (nematic) phase within a definite concentration limit between X5DBT = 0.05 and X5DBT = 0.95. Utilizing high-resolution MDSC setup, we have carried out a detailed heat capacity measurement at the induced N to smectic A (SmA) transition. Analysis of the latent heat confirms the occurrence of two tricritical points: one having the McMillan ratio = 0.981 and the other corresponding to 0.983. A distinct pretransitional heat capacity change close to the transition temperature is observed. The renormalization group theory involving a correction-to-scaling factor, effectively describes this anomaly. The critical exponent α follows a distinct pattern when plotted against both mole fraction (X5DBT ) and McMillan ratio (TNA/TIN). As the system approaches the tricritical point (TCP), a consistent shift from 2nd order to 1st order N–SmA transition is noticed on each end of the phase diagram. Both the TCP shares a common McMillan ratio = 0.982. Additionally, the 3D–XY model is precisely attained near X5DBT = 0.687, corresponding to TNA/TIN = 0.909.