Related papers: Bivalent defect configurations in inhomogeneous ne…
Emulsions comprising isotropic fluid drops within a nematic host are of interest for applications ranging from biodetection to smart windows, which rely on changes of molecular alignment structures around the drops in response to chemical,…
We present observations of strength one defects and antidefects formed in isotropic-nematic phase transition in a thin layer of nematic liquid crystals, using a cross-polarizer setup. We measure the widths of the distributions of {\it net}…
Within the framework of continuum theory, we draw a parallel between ferromagnetic materials and nematic liquid crystals confined on curved surfaces, which are both characterized by local interaction and anchoring potentials. We show that…
We consider an isolated point defect embedded in a homogeneous crystalline solid. We show that, in the harmonic approximation, a periodic supercell approximation of the formation free energy as well as of the transition rate between two…
We use three-dimensional phase-field simulations to investigate the dynamics of the two-phase composite patterns formed upon during solidification of eutectic alloys. Besides the spatially periodic lamellar and rod patterns that have been…
The isotropic to ferroelectric nematic liquid transition had been theoretically studied over one hundred years ago, but its experimental studies are rare. Here we present polarizing optical microscopy studies and theoretical considerations…
In nematic liquid crystals (NLCs), topological defects of a chiral origin play a role in phase transitions and lead to phase configurations of nontrivial topology, like those in neutron stars and helium in the A-phase. In the…
We formulate the statistical dynamics of topological defects in the active nematic phase, formed in two dimensions by a collection of self-driven particles on a substrate. An important consequence of the non-equilibrium drive is the…
Liquid crystals in two dimensions undergo a first-order isotropic-to-quasi-nematic transition, provided the particle interactions are sufficiently ``sharp and narrow''. This implies phase coexistence between isotropic and quasi-nematic…
In a density-imbalanced bilayer Wigner crystal, where the ratio of electron densities in separate layers deviates slightly from unity, defects spontaneously form in one or both layers in the ground state of the system. Due to quantum…
Point-like topological defects are singular configurations that occur in a variety of in and out of equilibrium systems with two-dimensional orientational order. As they are associated with a nonzero circuitation condition, the presence of…
When a nematic liquid crystal (LC) is confined on a self-closing spherical shell, topological constraints arise with intriguing consequences that depend critically on how the LC is aligned in the shell. We demonstrate reversible dynamic…
We study nematic equilibria in an unbounded domain, with a two-dimensional regular polygonal hole with $K$ edges, in a reduced Landau-de Gennes framework. This complements our previous work on the "interior problem" for nematic equilibria…
We consider the simplest one-constant model, put forward by J. Ericksen, for nematic liquid crystals with variable degree of orientation. The equilibrium state is described by a director field $\mathbf{n}$ and its degree of orientation $s$,…
Scaled particle theory for a binary mixture of hard discorectangles and for a binary mixture of hard rectangles is used to predict possible liquid-crystal demixing scenarios in two dimensions. Through a bifurcation analysis from the…
The concept of a vestigial nematic order emerging from a "mother" spin or charge density-wave state has been applied to describe the phase diagrams of several systems, including unconventional superconductors. In a perfectly clean system,…
We use a continuum, two-fluid approach to study a mixture of two active nematic fluids. Even in the absence of thermodynamically-driven ordering, for mixtures of different activities we observe turbulent microphase separation, where domains…
Shell effects in the coordinate space can be seen with degenerate Fermi vapors in non-uniform trapping potentials. In particular, below the Fermi temperature, the density profile of a Fermi gas in a confining harmonic potential is…
We stabilize nematic droplets with handles against surface-tension-driven instabilities using a yield-stress material as outer fluid and study the complex nematic textures and defect structures that result from the competition between…
We study the organization of topological defects in a system of nematogens confined to the two-dimensional sphere (S^2). We first perform Monte Carlo simulations of a fluid system of hard rods (spherocylinders) living in the tangent plane…