Related papers: A Model Problem for Nematic-Isotropic Transitions …
We study the phase behaviour of cholesteric liquid crystal shells with different geometries. We compare the cases of tangential and no anchoring at the surface, focussing on the former case, which leads to a competition between the…
Following pioneering work by Fan and Slemrod who studied the effect of artificial viscosity terms, we consider the system of conservation laws arising in liquid-vapor phase dynamics with {\sl physical} viscosity and capillarity effects…
A continuum model of crystalline solid equilibrium is presented in which the underlying periodic lattice structure is taken explicitly into account. This model also allows for both point and line defects in the bulk of the lattice and at…
In liquid-crystalline elastomers, the nematic order parameter and the induced strain vary smoothly across the isotropic-nematic transition, without the expected first-order discontinuity. To investigate this smooth variation, we measure the…
Simulations of nematic-isotropic transition of liquid crystals in two dimensions are performed using an O(2) vector model characterised by non linear nearest neighbour spin interaction governed by the fourth Legendre polynomial $P\_4$. The…
We study the effects of elastic anisotropy on the Landau-de Gennes critical points for nematic liquid crystals, in a square domain. The elastic anisotropy is captured by a parameter, $L_2$, and the critical points are described by three…
We analyze the phase behavior of lyotropic nematic liquid crystals in the self-organizing flow, viz. so called active nematics (AN). Their elastic properties are mutually caused by evolution of topological defects (for instance,…
We consider a system of colloidal particles embedded in a paranematic -- an isotropic phase of a nematogenic medium above the temperature of the nematic-to-isotropic transition. In this state, the nematic order is induced by the boundary…
Present work is a theoretical study on the stability of the thermotropic biaxial nematic liquid crystal phase in model systems. Its main aim is to present the phase diagrams of spatially uniform liquid mesophases and to identify the…
Two dimensional crystalline membranes in isotropic embedding space exhibit a flat phase with anomalous elasticity, relevant e.g., for graphene. Here we study their thermal fluctuations in the absence of exact rotational invariance in the…
Within the framework of variational modelling we derive a one-phase moving boundary problem describing the motion of a semipermeable membrane enclosing a viscous liquid, driven by osmotic pressure and surface tension of the membrane. For…
We study pattern formation in gels undergoing simultaneous phase separation and orientational ordering. A 2D numerical simulation is performed using a minimal model of nonlinear elasticity with density-anisotropy coupling. For strong…
We derive a multiphysics model that accounts for network elasticity with spontaneous strains, swelling and nematic interactions in liquid crystal gels (LCGs). We discuss the coupling among the various physical mechanisms, with particular…
Within the framework of variational modelling we derive a two-phase moving boundary problem that describes the motion of a semipermeable membrane separating two viscous liquids in a fixed container. The model includes the effects of osmotic…
In the present article, we are interested in an initial boundary value problem for a coupled system of partial differential equations arising in martensitic phase transition theory of elastically deformable solid materials, e.g., steel.…
We analyze the combined effect of the long range Coulomb (LRC) interaction and of surface energy on first order density-driven phase transitions in the presence of a compensating rigid background. We study mixed states formed by regions of…
Homogeneous nucleation of a new phase near an Ising-like critical point of another phase transition is studied. A scaling analysis shows that the free energy barrier to nucleation contains a singular term with the same scaling as the order…
Instabilities of fluid-fluid interfaces are ubiquitous in passive soft matter. Adding activity to the interface or either fluid can dramatically change the stability of the interface. Using experiment and theory, we investigate the…
We develop a rigorous, field-theoretical approach to the study of spontaneous emission in inertial and dissipative nematic liquid crystals, disclosing an alternative application of the massive Stueckelberg gauge theory to describe critical…
Liquid crystal elastomers are cross-linked polymer networks covalently bonded with liquid crystal mesogens. In the nematic phase, due to strong coupling between mechanical strain and orientational order, these materials display…