Related papers: Surface free energies for nematic shells
We characterise the particlelike kinematics of charge-carrying topological defects in nematic media via a geometric field theory. This differs from the theory of electromagnetism, with which it is often compared, due to the absence of…
Morphodynamic equations governing the behaviour of active nematic fluids on deformable curved surfaces are constructed in the large deformation limit. Emphasis is placed on the formulation of objective rates that account for normal…
We investigate theoretically the elliptical shapes of soft colloids in freely standing smectic C films, that have been reported recently. The colloids favour parallel alignment of the liquid crystal molecules at their surfaces and, for…
A discrete-to-continuum analysis for free-boundary problems related to crystalline films deposited on substrates is performed by $\Gamma$-convergence. The discrete model here introduced is characterized by an energy with two contributions,…
We calculate the entropy and the temperature dependent part of the free energy for a free standing plane plasma sheet and for the a free standing plane slab of finite thickness with dispersion described by the plasma model. In case the…
Shells, when confined, can deform in a broad assortment of shapes and patterns, often quite dissimilar to what is produced by their flat counterparts (plates). In this work we discuss the morphological landscape of shells deposited on a…
Nematic solids respond strongly to changes in ambient heat or light, significantly differently parallel and perpendicular to the director. This phenomenon is well characterized for uniform director fields, but not for defect textures. We…
Determining the equilibrium configuration and shape of curved two-dimensional films with (generalized) liquid crystalline (LC) order is a difficult infinite dimensional problem of direct relevance to the study of generalized polymersomes,…
A shape sensitive, variational approach for the matching of surfaces considered as thin elastic shells is investigated. The elasticity functional to be minimized takes into account two different types of nonlinear energies: a membrane…
An exact kinematic law for the motion of disclination lines in nematic liquid crystals as a function of the tensor order parameter $\mathbf{Q}$ is derived. Unlike other order parameter fields that become singular at their respective defect…
We discuss the long-wave hydrodynamic model for a thin film of nematic liquid crystal in the limit of strong anchoring at the free surface and at the substrate. We rigorously clarify how the elastic energy enters the evolution equation for…
To insight the relationships between the self-organizing structures of cells, such as the cell clusters, and the properties of biotissues is helpful in revealing the function and designing biomaterial. Traditional random foam model neglects…
Two-dimensional active nematics are often modeled using phenomenological continuum theories that describe the dynamics of the nematic director and fluid velocity through partial differential equations (PDEs). While these models provide a…
Active matter locally converts chemical energy into mechanical work and, for this reason, it provides new mechanisms of pattern formation. In particular, active gels made of protein motors and filaments are far-from-equilibrium systems that…
A vast array of phenomena, ranging from chemical reactions to phase transformations, are analysed in terms of a free energy surface defined with respect to a single or multiple order parameters. Enhanced sampling methods are typically used,…
We study the free energy and dynamics of a closed elastic filament (a one-dimensional curve in two dimensions) whose local internal state is specified by curvature, stretch, and a scalar density field representing, for example, the…
We consider textures of biaxial nematics confined between two parallel plates. The boundary conformations at the bordering plates are supposed to be identical, the gradients of the order parameter being generally nonzero. We claim that for…
We construct the molecular model and the tensor model for the dynamics of the nematic phases of bent-core molecules and star molecules in incompressible fluid. We start from the molecular interaction and the molecule--fluid friction, and…
The theory of second gradient fluids (which are able to exert shear stresses also in equilibrium conditions) allows us: (i) to describe both the thermodynamical and the mechanical behavior of systems in which an interface is present; (ii)…
The surface free energy of ideal hard rods near curved hard surfaces is determined to second order in curvature for surfaces of general shape. In accordance with previous results for spherical and cylindrical surfaces it is found that this…