Related papers: Geometric frustration and compatibility conditions…
This paper reviews the complex ordered structures induced by chirality in liquid crystals. In general, chirality favors a twist in the orientation of liquid-crystal molecules. In some cases, as in the cholesteric phase, this favored twist…
In recent years there has been a growing interest in the study of shape formation using modern responsive materials that can be preprogrammed to undergo spatially inhomogeneous local deformations. In particular, nematic liquid crystalline…
We theoretically investigate the threshold for the director reorientation from the homeotropic state to the hybrid homeotropic-planar state and vice versa in a cell filled with a flexoelectric nematic liquid crystal (NLC) subjected to an…
We investigate the full phase diagram of a column of grains near jamming, as a function of varying levels of frustration. Frustration is modelled by the effect of two opposing fields on a grain, due respectively to grains above and below…
Disclinations lines play a key role in many physical processes, from the fracture of materials to the formation of the early universe. Achieving versatile control over disclinations is key to developing novel electro-optical devices,…
Effects of geometrical frustration in low-dimensional charge ordering systems are theoretically studied, mainly focusing on dynamical properties. We treat extended Hubbard models at quarter-filling, where the frustration arises from…
Geometrical frustration in strongly correlated systems can give rise to a plethora of novel ordered states and intriguing magnetic phases, such as quantum spin liquids. Promising candidate materials for such phases can be described by the…
Conical surfaces pose an interesting challenge to crystal growth: a crystal growing on a cone can wrap around and meet itself at different radii. We use a disk-packing algorithm to investigate how this closure constraint can geometrically…
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…
Different liquid crystalline phases with long-range orientational but not positional order, so-called nematic phases, are scarce. It rarely occurs that a new nematic phase is discovered and such event is inevitably accompanied by a great…
The satisfiability and optimization of finite-dimensional Boolean formulas are studied using percolation theory, rare region arguments, and boundary effects. In contrast with mean-field results, there is no satisfiability transition, though…
Elastic theory of ring-(or cylinder-)shaped crystals is constructed and the generation of edge dislocations due to geometrical frustration caused by the bending is studied. The analogy to superconducting (or superfluid) vortex state is…
Helical structures are ubiquitous in nature and engineering, ranging from DNA molecules to plant tendrils, from sea snail shells to nanoribbons. While the helical shapes in natural and engineered systems often exhibit nearly uniform radius…
The paper is concerned with various issues surrounding the mathematical description of defects in models of liquid crystals, drawing on experience from solid mechanics. The roles played by a suitable choice of function space and by the…
Given recipe of qualitative, kinetic modelling by geometric methods of three-dimensional dendritic crystals. Characteristic features of the perturbations appearing on the surface of a spherical body, leading to different scenarios of the…
Topology can manifest itself in colloids when quantified by invariants like Euler characteristics of nonzero-genus colloidal surfaces, albeit spherical colloidal particles are most often studied, and colloidal particles with complex…
Topological defects are ubiquitous on surfaces with orientational order fields. Here, we study equilibrium states generated by the feedback between geometry and nematic order on fluid membranes with an integer topological defect. When the…
Electronic nematic order has been reported in a rich landscape of materials, encompassing not only a range of intertwined correlated and topological phenomena, but also different underlying lattice symmetries. Motivated by these findings,…
Within the macroscopic Landau-de Gennes approach, we examine the Gaussian normal mode fluctuations of semi-infinite nematic liquid crystals in a regime of critical wetting. It is argued that surface free-energy potentials that strongly…
In soft matter, the phase of nematic liquid crystals can be made from anisotropic molecules in single component materials, or as a suspension of mesoscopic nematogens. The later offers more versatility in the experimental design of complex…