Equation of state of a dense columnar liquid crystal.

An accurate description of a columnar liquid crystal of hard disks at high packing fractions is presented using an improved free-volume theory. It is shown that the orientational entropy of the disks in the (one-dimensional) fluid direction leads to a different high-density scaling pressure compared to the prediction from traditional cell theory. Excellent quantitative agreement is found with recent Monte Carlo simulation results for various thermodynamic and structural properties.