THE FLAT PHASE OF FIXED-CONNECTIVITY MEMBRANES

The statistical mechanics of flexible two-dimensional surfaces (membra nes) appears in a wide variety of physical settings. In this talk we d iscuss the simplest case of fixed-connectivity surfaces. We first revi ew the current theoretical understanding of the remarkable flat phase of such membranes, We then summarize the results of a recent large sca le Monte Carlo simulation of the simplest conceivable discrete realiza tion of this system [1]. We verify the existence of long-range order, determine the associated critical exponents of the flat phase and comp are the results to the predictions of various theoretical models.