Recently, a new class of smectic liquid crystal phases (SmCP phases) characterized by the spontaneous formation of macroscopic chiral domains from achiral bent-core molecules has been discovered. We have carried out Monte Carlo simulations of a minimal hard spherocylinder dimer model to investigate the role of excluded volume interations in determining the phase behavior of bent-core materials and to probe the molecular origins of polar and chiral symmetry breaking. We present the phase diagram as a function of pressure or density and dimer opening angle ψ. With decreasing ψ, a transition from a nonpolar to a polar smectic phase is observed near ψ = 167• , and the nematic phase becomes thermodynamically unstable for ψ < 135• . No chiral smectic or biaxial nematic phases were found. [5]. In all of these examples, chirality is an intrinsic property built into the chemical structure of the LC molecules. Recently, a new class of smectic LC phases (SmCP phases) characterized by the spontaneous formation of macroscopic chiral layers from achiral molecules has been discovered [6,7]. The molecules comprising these phases have 'bow' or 'banana' shaped cores. The resulting phases exhibit two spontaneous symmetry-breaking instabilities: polar molecular orientational ordering within the layer plane, and molecular tilt, which together produce chiral layers with a handedness that depends on the direction of the tilt relative to the polar axis. Very large second order nonlinear optical (NLO) coefficients have been measured in the ferroelectric state of such materials, bearing some promising applications in NLO devices [8,9].From a theoretical point of view, the relationship of phase behavior to the specific bent-core molecular shape is of fundamental interest. In this paper, we investigate a minimal excluded volume model of bent-core mesogens, focusing on the molecular origin of polar and/or chiral symmetry breaking. Of particular interest is the coupling between polar and chiral symmetry breaking. In all bentcore materials studied to date, polar symmetry breaking is accompanied by chiral symmetry breaking induced by molecular tilt. This empirical fact raises the question whether there is a fundamental connection between polarity and chirality in molecular fluids. Another empirical observation is that bent-core materials exhibiting SmCP phases generally do not exhibit nematic phases, although two exceptions have recently been reported [10,11]. One objective of this study is to establish the molecular shape requirements for the occurence of the nematic phase in bent-core materials. Finally, we explore the possibility of biaxial nematic ordering in bent-core materials, motivated by recent experimental indications [11,12].Hard core models are particularly appealing due to their simplicity and relative ease of computation, both in simulation and theory. In particular, hard spherocylinders have been widely studied as simple models for conventional LCs [13,14]. This model exhibits rich phase behavior including isotropic, nematic, s...