Elastic lines on splayed columnar defects studied numerically

Abstract

We investigate by exact optimization method properties of two- and three-dimensional systems of elastic lines in presence of splayed columnar disorder. The ground state of many lines is separable both in two (2D) and three dimensions (3D), leading to a random walk-like roughening in 2D and ballistic behavior in 3D. Furthermore, we find that in the case of pure splayed columnar disorder, in contrast to point disorder, there is no entanglement transition in 3D. Entanglement can be triggered by perturbing the pure splay system with point defects.