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Related papers: Global Defect Topology in Nematic Liquid Crystals

200 papers

From the theory of topological defect formation proposed for the early universe, the so called Kibble mechanism, it follows that the density correlation functions of defects and anti-defects in a given system should be completely determined…

High Energy Physics - Phenomenology · Physics 2009-11-07 Rajarshi Ray , Ajit M. Srivastava

The conventional topological description given by the fundamental group of nematic order parameter does not adequately explain the entangled defect line structures that have been observed in nematic colloids. We introduce a new topological…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2011-05-09 Simon Čopar , Slobodan Žumer

Confined samples of liquid crystals are characterized by a variety of topological defects and can be exposed to external constraints such as extreme confinements with nontrivial topology. Here we explore the intrinsic structure of smectic…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2021-02-03 René Wittmann , Louis B. G. Cortes , Hartmut Löwen , Dirk G. A. L. Aarts

We use arguments based on Derrick's theorem to show that the property of collapse which is the key feature of global texture appears in several field theory models with broken global O(N) symmetry. Such models do not necessarily have…

High Energy Physics - Phenomenology · Physics 2009-10-22 Leandros Perivolaropoulos

Topological defects play a central role in the formation and organization of various biological systems. Historically, such nonequilibrium defects have been mainly studied in the context of homogeneous active nematics. Phase-separated…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2023-07-13 Timo Krüger , Ivan Maryshev , Erwin Frey

Defects in liquid crystals are of great practical importance and theoretical interest. Despite tremendous efforts, predicting the location and transition of defects under various topological constraint and external field remains to be a…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2014-08-27 Yucheng Hu , Yang Qu , Pingwen Zhang

We classify topological defects in non-Hermitian systems with point gap, real gap and imaginary gap for all the Bernard-LeClair classes or generalized Bernard-LeClair classes in all dimensions. The defect Hamiltonian $H(\bf{k}, {\bf r})$ is…

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics · Physics 2020-07-22 Chun-Hui Liu , Shu Chen

The geometric shape, symmetry, and topology of colloidal particles often allow for controlling colloidal phase behavior and physical properties of these soft matter systems. In liquid crystalline dispersions, colloidal particles with low…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2024-10-14 Ye Yuan , Ivan I. Smalyukh

There are two prominent applications of the mathematical concept of topology to the physics of materials: band topology, which classifies different topological insulators and semimetals, and topological defects that represent immutable…

Materials Science · Physics 2022-08-11 Zhi-Kang Lin , Qiang Wang , Yang Liu , Haoran Xue , Baile Zhang , Yidong Chong , Jian-Hua Jiang

We investigate the global structure of topological defects which wrap a submanifold $F\subset M$ in a quantum field theory defined on a closed manifold $M$. The Pontryagin-Thom construction oversees the interplay between the global…

Mathematical Physics · Physics 2025-02-12 Arun Debray , Weicheng Ye , Matthew Yu

Linear defects such as dislocations and disclinations in ordered materials attract foreign particles since they replace strong elastic distortions at the defect cores. In this work, we explore the behavior of isotropic droplets nucleating…

We establish how active stress globally affects the morphology of disclination lines of a three dimensional active nematic liquid crystal under chaotic flow. Thanks to a defect detection algorithm based on the local nematic orientation, we…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2025-06-30 Pasquale Digregorio , Cecilia Rorai , Ignacio Pagonabarraga , Federico Toschi

To enhance the understanding of the behavior of active nematic, it is important to understand the behavior of topological defects. In this paper, we study the configuration of topological defects of a two-dimensional active nematic around a…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2026-02-16 Hiroki Matsukiyo , Jun-ichi Fukuda

We present a scheme to explicitly construct and classify general topological states jointly protected by an onsite symmetry group and a spatial symmetry group. We show that all these symmetry protected topological states can be…

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics · Physics 2020-01-03 Zhida Song , Sheng-Jie Huang , Yang Qi , Chen Fang , Michael Hermele

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…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2026-05-22 Joseph Pollard , Richard G. Morris

The order parameter of the smectic liquid crystal phase is the same as that of a superfluid or superconductor, namely a complex scalar field. We show that the essential difference in boundary conditions between these systems leads to a…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2017-02-08 Randall D. Kamien , Ricardo A. Mosna

We present a novel, self-consistent and robust theoretical model to investigate elastic interactions between topological defects in liquid crystal shells. Accounting for the non-concentric nature of the shell in a simple manner, we are able…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2016-12-14 Alexandre Darmon , Olivier Dauchot , Teresa Lopez-Leon , Michael Benzaquen

Motivated by recent experiments on the rod-like virus bacteriophage fd, confined to circular and annular domains, we present a theoretical study of structural transitions in these geometries. Using the continuum theory of nematic liquid…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2015-08-14 O. V. Manyuhina , K. B. Lawlor , M. C. Marchetti , M. J. Bowick

Computer simulations are presented of the isotropic-to-nematic transition in a liquid crystal confined between two parallel plates a distance H apart. The plates are neutral and do not impose any anchoring on the particles. Depending on the…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2010-08-20 J. M. Fish , R. L. C. Vink

Integer winding disclinations are unstable in a nematic and are removed by an `escape into the third dimension', resulting in a non-singular texture. This process is frustrated in a cholesteric material due to the requirement of maintaining…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2024-03-21 Joseph Pollard , Gareth P. Alexander