Related papers: The weirdest martensite: Smectic liquid crystal mi…
We study the existence of weak martingale solutions to a stochastic moving boundary problem arising from the interaction between an isentropic compressible fluid and a viscoelastic structure. In the model, we consider a three-dimensional…
Liquid crystals (LCs) composed of mesogens play important roles in various scientific and engineering problems. How a system with many mesogens can enter a LC state is an interesting and important problem. Using stiff and free-joint…
Sought-after ordered structures of mixtures of hard anisotropic nanoparticles can often be thermodynamically unfavorable due to the components' geometric incompatibility to densely pack into regular lattices. A simple compatibilization rule…
We determine the hydrodynamic modes of the superfluid analog of a smectic-A phase in liquid crystals, i.e., a state in which both gauge invariance and translational invariance along a single direction are spontaneously broken. Such a…
The phase behavior of the system of parallel rigid triblock copolymers is examined using the second-virial density functional theory. The triblock particle consists of two identical infinitely thin hard rods of finite lengths on the…
Soft materials can self-assemble into highly structured phases which replicate at the mesoscopic scale the symmetry of atomic crystals. As such, they offer an unparalleled platform to design mesostructured materials for light and sound.…
Liquid crystalline systems exhibiting both macroscopic chirality and smectic order experience frustration resulting in mesophases possessing complex three-dimensional order. In the twist-grain-boundary phase, defect lattices mediate the…
We discuss a new type of topological defect in XY systems where the O(2) symmetry is broken in the presence of a boundary. Of particular interest is the appearance of such defects in nanomagnets with a planar geometry. They are manifested…
A promising approach in designing composite materials with unusual physical behavior combines solid nanostructures and orientationally ordered soft matter at the mesoscale. Such composites not only inherit properties of their constituents…
We study the ground-state phases of a two-dimensional dipolar supersolid subjected to external periodic confinement by numerically solving the extended Gross--Pitaevskii equation. Focusing on a regime in which the unconfined system forms an…
A crystal lattice, when confined to the surface of a cylinder, must have a periodic structure that is commensurate with the cylinder circumference. This constraint can frustrate the system, leading to oblique crystal lattices or to…
A recent paper on the large-scale structure of the Universe presented evidence for a rectangular three-dimensional lattice of galaxy superclusters and voids, with lattice spacing ~120 Mpc and called for some ``hitherto unknown process'' to…
We present a mesoscopic lattice model for non-ideal fluid flows with directional interactions, mimicking the effects of hydrogen-bonds in water. The model supports a rich and complex structural dynamics of the orientational order parameter,…
Certain models with purely repulsive pair interactions can form cluster crystals with multiply-occupied lattice sites. Simulating these models' equilibrium properties is, however, quite challenging. Here, we develop an expanded…
Confined smectic A liquid crystals (SmA LCs) form topological defects called focal conic domains (FCDs) that focus light as gradient-index lenses. Here, we exploit surface curvature to self-assemble FCDs in a single step into a hierarchical…
Using simulations of hard rods in smectic-A states, we find non-gaussian diffusion and heterogeneous dynamics due to the equilibrium periodic smectic density profiles, which give rise to permanent barriers for layer-to-layer diffusion. This…
We have measured the stability boundary for steady electrically-driven convective flow in thin, freely suspended films of Smectic-A liquid crystal. The thinness and layered structure of the films supress two- and three-dimensional…
Wigner crystals are extremely fragile, which is shown to result from very strong geometric frustration germane to long-range Coulomb interactions. Physically, this is manifested by a very small characteristic energy scale for shear density…
We generalize the shape optimization problem for the existence of stable equilibrium configurations of nematic and cholesteric liquid crystal drops surrounded by an isotropic solution to include a broader family of admissible domains with…
We describe a theory of packing hyperboloid 'diabolic' domains in bend-free textures of liquid crystals. The domains sew together continuously, providing a menagerie of bend-free textures akin to the packing of focal conic domains in…