Related papers: Nematic cells with defect-patterned alignment laye…
Mono-layers of stearic and behenic acids deposited with the Langmuir-Blodgett technique, were used as aligning films in nematic liquid crystal cells. During the filling process the liquid crystal adopts a deformed quasi-planar alignment…
We study the collective dynamics of elongated swimmers in a very thin fluid layer by devising long, filamentous, non-tumbling bacteria. The strong confinement induces weak nematic alignment upon collision, which, for large enough density of…
In a previous paper [Phys. Rev. E 90, 022506 (2014)], we had studied thermodynamic and structural properties of a three-dimensional simple-cubic lattice model with dipolar-like interaction, truncated at nearest-neighbor separation, for…
The emergence of nematic order on deformable closed surfaces plays a pivotal role in the morphogenesis of active biological matter, such as the regeneration of Hydra. In this work, we present a continuum model that couples the…
We study dynamical processes in a multi-domain (MD) structured nematic liquid crystal cell with a particular emphasis on the motion, creation and annihilation of disclinations. In the MD cell right- and left-handed director helices…
We address the problem of orientational order in frustrated interaction systems as a function of the relative range of the competing interactions. We study a spin model Hamiltonian with short range ferromagnetic interaction competing with…
Collective response to external directional cues like electric fields plays a pivotal role in processes such as tissue development, regeneration, and wound healing. In this study we focus on the impact of anisotropy in cell shape and local…
Experimental evidence shows that there is a feedback between cell shape and cell motion. How this feedback impacts the collective behavior of dense cell monolayers remains an open question. We investigate the effect of a feedback that tends…
Bacterial colonies composed of elongated cells form active nematic fluids that spontaneously self-organise into ordered domains of aligned cells and exhibit self-generated chaotic flows powered by cell growth. While their dynamics have…
Lattice Monte-Carlo simulations were performed to study the equilibrium ordering in a two-dimensional nematic system with quenched random disorder. When the disordering field, which competes against the aligning effect of the Frank…
We present large scale computer simulations of the nonlinear bulk rheology of lamellar phases (smectic liquid crystals) at moderate to large values of the shear rate (Peclet numbers 10-100), in both two and three dimensions. In two…
We propose a continuum model to describe the molecular alignment in thin nematic shells. By contrast with previous accounts, the two-dimensional free energy, aimed at describing the physics of thin films of nematics deposited on curved…
The electronic nematic phase occurs when the point-group symmetry of the lattice structure is broken, due to electron-electron interactions. We study a model for the nematic phase on a square lattice with emphasis on the phase transition…
Phase diagram and pattern formation in two-dimensional Ising model with coupling between order parameter and lattice vibrations is investigated by Monte-Carlo simulations. It is shown that if the coupling is strong enough (or phonons are…
We study a minimal model of a system with coexisting nematic and polar orientational orders, where one field tends to order and the other prefers isotropy. For strong coupling, the ordered field aligns the isotropic one, locking their…
Coupling between flow and orientation is a central issue in understanding the collective dynamics of active biofilaments and cells. Active stresses generated by motor activity destroy (quasi-)long-range orientational order and induce…
Defects arise when nematic liquid crystals are under topological constraints at the boundary. Recently the study of defects has drawn a lot of attention. In this paper, we investigate the relationship between two-dimensional defects and…
Cell membrane tension directly influences various cellular functions. In this study, we developed a method to estimate surface tension from time-series data. We obtained the curvature-velocity relationship from time-series of binarized cell…
We report the results of Monte Carlo simulations of the Lebwohl--Lasher model of nematic liquid crystals confined to cylindrical cavities with homeotropic anchoring. We show that the ratio of the bulk to surface couplings is not in general…
We undertake a comprehensive Monte Carlo (MC) study of the ordering kinetics in nematic liquid crystals (NLCs) in 3-dimensions $(d=3)$ by performing deep quenches from the isotropic $(T>T_c)$ to the nematic $(T<T_c)$ phase. The…