Related papers: Tetrahedral Order in Liquid Crystals
By using a phase-field crystal (PFC) model, the liquid-crystal growth of the plastic triangular phase is simulated with emphasis on crystal shape and topological defect formation. The equilibrium shape of a plastic triangular crystal (PTC)…
Topological defects are an essential part of the structure and dynamics of all liquid crystals, and they are particularly important in experiments and simulations on active liquid crystals. In a recent paper, Vromans and Giomi [Soft Matter,…
So-called polar liquid crystals possess spontaneous long-range mutual orientation of their electric dipole moments, conferring bulk polarity to fluid phases of matter. The combination of polarity and fluidity leads to complex phase…
The phase-field-crystal model for liquid crystals is solved numerically in two spatial dimensions. This model is formulated with three position-dependent order parameters, namely the reduced translational density, the local nematic order…
We study the symmetry and the spatial uniformity of orientational order of the biaxial nematic phase in the light of recent experimental observations of phase biaxiality in thermotropic bent-core and calamitic-tetramer nematics. We present…
Anisotropic fluids appear in a diverse array of systems, from liquid-crystal displays to bacterial swarms, and are characterized by orientational order. Large colloidal particles immersed in such environments disturb the medium's…
We use the isoconfigurational (IC) ensemble to show the connection between emerging heterogeneities in the tetrahedral order parameter and the dynamic propensity in a mildly undercooled glass-forming liquid. We observe that spatially…
A third-order three-dimensional symmetric traceless tensor, called the \emph{octupolar} tensor, has been introduced to study tetrahedratic nematic phases in liquid crystals. The octupolar \emph{potential}, a scalar-valued function generated…
The optical birefringence of rod-like nematogens (7CB, 8CB), imbibed in parallel silica channels with 10 nm diameter and 300 micrometer length, is measured and compared to the thermotropic bulk behavior. The orientational order of the…
In culture migrating and interacting amoeboid cells can form nematic liquid crystal phases. A polar nematic liquid crystal is formed if the interaction has a polar symmetry. One type of white blood cells (granulocytes) form clusters where…
The liquid, plastic crystalline and ordered crystalline phases of CBr$_4$ were studied using neutron powder diffraction. The measured total scattering differential cross-sections were modelled by Reverse Monte Carlo simulation techniques…
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…
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…
The study of liquid crystals at equilibrium has led to fundamental insights into the nature of ordered materials, as well as to practical applications such as display technologies. Active nematics are a fundamentally different class of…
Hydrodynamics of complex fuids with multiple order parameters is governed by a set of dynamic equations with many material constants, of which only some are easily measurable. We present a unique example of a dynamic magneto-optic coupling…
We formulate a hydrodynamic theory of $p-$atic liquid crystals, namely two-dimensional anisotropic fluids endowed with generic $p-$fold rotational symmetry. Our approach, based on an order parameter tensor that directly embodies the…
Nematic liquid crystals confined to geometrically as well as chemically patterned substrate on one end and a flat substrate with strong anchoring on the other is studied using non-Boltzmann Monte Carlo methods. We observe significant…
Spontaneous self-assembly of hard convex polyhedra are known to form orientationally disordered crystalline phases, where particle orientations do not follow the same pattern as the positional arrangement of the crystal. A distinct type of…
We experimentally investigate the nature of 2D phase transitions in a quasi-2D granular fluid. Using a surface decorated with periodically spaced dimples we observe interfacial tension between coexisting liquid and crystal phases.…
The hydrodynamic theory of polar liquid crystals is widely used to describe biological active fluids as well as passive molecular materials. Depending on the `shear-alignment parameter', in passive or weakly active polar fluids under…