Stripes, Zigzags, and Slow Dynamics in Buckled Hard Spheres

We study the analogy between buckled colloidal monolayers and the triangular-lattice Ising antiferromagnet. We calculate free-volume-induced Ising interactions, show how lattice deformations favor zigzag stripes that partially remove the Ising model ground-state degeneracy, and identify the martensitic mechanism prohibiting perfect stripes. Slowly inflating the spheres yields jamming as well as logarithmically slow relaxation reminiscent of the glassy dynamics observed experimentally.