The behavior of a two-dimensional system of particles interacting through a potential consisting of a hard core surrounded by a soft repulsive corona is investigated at several densities and temperatures. We find that the competition between hard and soft repulsions gives origin to the spontaneous formation of spatial patterns resembling stripe textures. The effect of varying the hard and soft core radii ratio as well as that of adding an attractive component to the interparticle interaction is studied. The model investigated is relevant for macromolecular topologies possessing two intrinsic length scales.

• Received 11 November 2003

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.70.021202