Title: A hexatic smectic phase with algebraically decaying bond-orientational order,
Abstract: The hexatic phase predicted by the theories of two-dimensional melting is
characterised by the power law decay of the orientational correlations whereas
the in-layer bond orientational order in all the hexatic smectic phases
observed so far was found to be long-range. We report a hexatic smectic phase
where the in-layer bond orientational correlations decay as $\propto r^{-1/4}$,
in quantitative agreement with the hexatic ordering predicted by the theory for
two dimensions. The phase was formed in a molecular dynamics simulation of a
one-component system of particles interacting via a spherically symmetric
potential. This is the first observation of the theoretically predicted
two-dimensional hexatic order in a three-dimensional system.