LATENT HEAT OF THE CHOLESTERIC TO SMECTIC A TRANSITION

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Abstract
It is well known that the nematic to smectic A transition is analogous to the superconducting transition and can be second order if director fluctuations are ignored. We argue here that the cholesteric to smectic A transition is analogous to the superconducting transition in an external magnetic field and is, therefore, always first order. We find the latent heat of this transition to be proportional to (q0L)(1-α)/ν where q0 is the high temperature pitch wavenumber, L is a molecular length, α is the specific heat exponent, and ν is the correlation length exponent

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