Related papers: Twist-bend nematic phase from Landau-de Gennes per…
A system that possesses translational symmetry but breaks orientational symmetry is known as a nematic phase. While there are many examples of nematic phases in a wide range of contexts, such as in liquid crystals, complex oxides, and…
We explain the origins of the controversy about the classification of the $N_X$ phase observed in cyanobiphenyl dimers and why it is a polar twisted phase, an entirely new kind of nematic.
Mixtures of nematic liquid crystals and isotropic fluids display a diverse range of phase behaviors, arising from the coupling between orientational order and concentration fluctuations. In this review, we introduce a simplified…
In equilibrium hard-rod fluids, and in effective hard-rod descriptions of anisotropic soft-particle systems, the transition from the isotropic (I) phase to the nematic phase (N) is observed above the rod aspect ratio L/D = 3.70 as predicted…
Particle tracking passive microrheology in 8CB liquid crystals is used to redefine the precessional motion of the orientation of nematic director in liquid crystals. Physical origin of tumbling director in presence of presmectic clusters…
Broadband dielectric spectroscopy was used to study the molecular orientational dynamics of the glass-forming, thioether-linked cyanobiphenyl liquid crystal dimers. As was expected theoretically, two different relaxation processes that…
Using dynamic light scattering, we measure for the first time the temperature-dependent elastic moduli and associated orientational viscosity coefficients of the nematic phase in a self-assembled lyotropic chromonic liquid crystal. The bend…
The structure of a molecular liquid, in both the nematic liquid crystalline and isotropic phases, around a cylindrical macroparticle, is studied using density functional theory. In the nematic phase the structure of the fluid is highly…
Twisted bilayer graphene (TBG) develops large moir\'e patterns at small twist angles with flat energy bands hosting domes of superconductivity. The large system size and intricate band structure have however hampered investigations into the…
The emergence of new techniques for the fabrication of nematic droplets with nontrivial topology provides new routes for the assembly of responsive devices. Here we perform a numerical study of spherical nematic droplets on fibres. We…
We formulate the statistical dynamics of topological defects in the active nematic phase, formed in two dimensions by a collection of self-driven particles on a substrate. An important consequence of the non-equilibrium drive is the…
We investigate the asymptotic behaviour of a correlation function associated with a nematic liquid crystal system undergoing an isotropic-nematic phase transition following an instantaneous change of temperature. Within the setting of…
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…
A propagating "beam" triggering a local phase transition in a nematic elastomer sets it into a crawling motion, which may morph due to buckling. We consider the motion of the various configurations of slender rods and thin stripes with both…
There is now growing evidence of the emergence and biological functionality of liquid crystal features, including nematic order and topological defects, in cellular tissues. However, how such features that intrinsically rely on particle…
Deviations of molecular shapes from spherical symmetry may give rise to a variety of novel phenomena, including their dynamic behavior. It has recently been predicted [Mazza \textit{et al}. Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{105}, 227802 (2010)] that…
Liquid crystal elastomers realize a fascinating new form of soft matter that is a composite of a conventional crosslinked polymer gel (rubber) and a liquid crystal. These {\em solid} liquid crystal amalgams, quite similarly to their…
We investigate the nematic phase transition in the Heisenberg $J_1$-$J_2$-model on square and triangular lattices, accounting for finite lattice compressibility and bond-length-dependent magnetic exchange. Using Nematic Bond Theory, a…
Pattern formation in uniaxial polymeric liquid crystals is studied for different dynamic closure approximations. Using the principles of mesoscopic non-equilibrium thermodynamics in a mean-field approach, we derive a Fokker-Planck equation…
A nematic membrane is a sheet with embedded orientational order, which can occur in biological cells, liquid crystal films, manufactured materials, and other soft matter systems. By formulating the free energy of nematic films using tensor…