Absence of nematic quasi-long-range order in two-dimensional liquid crystals with three director components

Abstract: The Lebwohl-Lasher model describes the isotropic-nematic transition in liquid crystals. In two dimensions, where its continuous symmetry cannot break spontaneously, it is investigated numerically since decades to verify, in particular, the conjecture of a topological transition leading to a nematic phase with quasi-long-range order. We use scale invariant scattering theory to exactly determine the renormalization group fixed points in the general case of $N$ director components ($RP^{N-1}$ model), which yields the Lebwohl-Lasher model for $N=3$. For $N>2$ we show the absence of quasi-long-range order and the presence of a zero temperature critical point in the universality class of the $O(N(N+1)/2-1)$ model. For $N=2$ the fixed point equations yield the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition required by the correspondence $RP^1\sim O(2)$.