Related papers: A One-Dimensional Variational Problem for Choleste…
We investigate experimentally and numerically the defect configurations emerging when a cholesteric liquid crystal is confined to a spherical shell. We uncover a rich scenario of defect configurations, some of them non-existent in nematic…
A new energy functional for pure traction problems in elasticity has been deduced in [23] as the variational limit of nonlinear elastic energy functional for a material body subject to an equilibrated force field: a sort of Gamma limit with…
We model a cholesteric liquid crystal as a planar uniaxial multilayer system, where the orientation of each layer differs slightly from that of the adjacent one. This allows us to analytically simplify the otherwise acutely complicated…
We analyse the effect of thermal fluctuations on the elastic constants of the decoupled lamellar phase of tethered, crystalline membranes. Using a momentum-shell renormalization group technique, we show that the smectic-A -like…
The present contribution investigates the well-posedness of a PDE system describing the evolution of a nematic liquid crystal flow under kinematic transports for molecules of different shapes. More in particular, the evolution of the {\em…
Cholesteric liquid crystals experience geometric frustration when they are confined between surfaces with anchoring conditions that are incompatible with the cholesteric twist. Because of this frustration, they develop complex topological…
It is shown that curved and flat helical double twisted liquid crystal (DTLC) in blue phase, can be unstable (stable) depending of the sign, negative (positive) of sectional curvature, depending on the pitch of the helix of the nematic…
We carry out an asymptotic analysis of a thin nematic liquid crystal in which one elastic constant dominates over the others, namely \begin{align} \label{energyab} \inf E_\varepsilon(u)\quad\mbox{where}\quad E_\varepsilon(u) :=…
We consider a nonlinear variational wave equation that models the dynamics of the director field in nematic liquid crystals with high molecular rotational inertia. Being derived from an energy principle, energy stability is an intrinsic…
A thin circular elastic sheet floating on a drop-like liquid substrate is deformed due to incompatibility between the curved substrate and the planar sheet. We adopt a variational viewpoint by minimizing the non-convex membrane energy…
Modeling liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs) at the molecular level is crucial for the predictable design of energy-conversion and stimuli-responsive materials. Here, we develop a self-consistent field theory for LCEs which captures the…
This article models experimentally observed three dimensional particle-like waves that develop in nematic liquid crystals, with negative dielectric and conductive anisotropy, when subject to an applied alternating electric field. The liquid…
We consider a continuum model of active viscoelastic matter, whereby an active nematic liquid-crystal is coupled to a minimal model of polymer dynamics with a viscoelastic relaxation time $\tau_C$. To explore the resulting interplay between…
Elastic constants are among the most fundamental and important properties of solid materials, which is why they are routinely characterized in both experiments and simulations. While conceptually simple, the treatment of elastic constants…
Starting from a microscopic definition of an alignment vector proportional to the polarization, we discuss the hydrodynamics of polar liquid crystals with local $C_{\infty v}$-symmetry. The free energy for polar liquid crystals differs from…
We propose an extension of Frank-Oseen's elastic energy for bulk nematic liquid crystals which is based on the hypothesis that the fundamental deformations allowed in nematic liquid crystals are splay, twist and bend. The extended elastic…
In this paper, we study an elastic bilayer plate composed of a nematic liquid crystal elastomer in the top layer and a nonlinearly elastic material in the bottom layer. While the bottom layer is assumed to be stress-free in the flat…
We study a system of nonlinear partial differential equations modeling the electrokinetics of a nematic electrolyte material consisting of various ion species suspended in a nematic liquid crystal within a bounded domain in two or three…
A micrometer-scale elastic shell immersed in a nematic liquid crystal may be deformed by the host if the cost of deformation is comparable to the cost of elastic deformation of the nematic. Moreover, such inclusions interact and form chains…
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…