Orientational correlations in active and passive nematic defects
Soft Condensed Matter
2021-11-08 v4
Abstract
We investigate the emergence of orientational order among +1/2 disclinations in active nematic liquid crystals. Using a combination of theoretical and experimental methods, we show that +1/2 disclinations have short-range antiferromagnetic alignment, as a consequence of the elastic torques originating from their polar structure. The presence of intermediate -1/2 disclinations, however, turns this interaction from anti-aligning to aligning at scales that are smaller than the typical distance between like-sign defects. No long-range orientational order is observed. Strikingly, these effects are insensitive to material properties and qualitatively similar to what is found for defects in passive nematic liquid crystals.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2004.13704,
title = {Orientational correlations in active and passive nematic defects},
author = {D. J. G. Pearce and J. Nambisan and P. W. Ellis and A. Fernandez-Nieves and L. Giomi},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2004.13704},
year = {2021}
}
Comments
6 pages, 4 figures