Loading [MathJax]/jax/output/HTML-CSS/fonts/TeX/fontdata.js
Now you are in the subtree of Energetic stability of quasicrystals project. 

3D: numerics for 4th order term

The general features of 4th order vertex in 3d are similar to 2D. Just like in 2D crossing the line of 2kFcosαQ leads to interaction switch from attraction for larger Q to repulsion at smaller values.

3D plot of the vertex and the line cuts are shown in the attached figures.

In a range of Q, at low enough temperatures, there are well-defined minima in the vertex. However, in that regime, the vertex is attractive for all angles, signifying instability.

The situation can be remedied by introducing a separate repulsion source, which is momentum independent, as one coming from fully local 4th order term. The denominator of the Free energy for a variational state then acquires a stabilizing contribution [11/(2N)]C, where C parametrizes the strength of local repulsion and N is the number of ordered ±q pairs.

In addition to the coplanar 4th order vertex, there is also a non-coplanar one, which included for the case of FCC. It can always be chosen attractive, and hence matters.