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One of the simplest systems to show phase transitions is a collection of particles that interact only through excluded volume interactions. Well known examples include hard sphere gas which undergoes a liquid-solid freezing transition and long rods which undergo an isotropic-nematic transition. In such systems, all allowed configurations have equal energy and hence temperature plays no role, and phases transition, if any, are entropy driven. In this talk, I will summarise recent results for such models on lattices. In particular, I will discuss an efficient Monte Carlo algorithm that is able to equilibrate such systems at all densities, and the new results that may be obtained by implementing this algorithm. |