Related papers: Nematic liquid crystals in a rectangular confineme…
Within the Landau-de Gennes theory of liquid crystals, we study theoretically the equilibrium configurations with uniaxial symmetry. For an arbitrary form of the bulk energy density, we show that energy minimizers among uniaxially symmetric…
We consider a thin film limit of a Landau-de Gennes Q-tensor model. In the limiting process we observe a continuous transition where the normal and tangential parts of the Q-tensor decouple and various intrinsic and extrinsic contributions…
We investigate prototypical profiles of point defects in two dimensional liquid crystals within the framework of Landau-de Gennes theory. Using boundary conditions characteristic of defects of index $k/2$, we find a critical point of the…
In the paper [Eur. J. of Appl. Math. \textbf{20}, (2009) 269--287] by da Costa et al. the twist-Fr\'eedericksz transition in a nematic liquid crystal one-dimensional cell of lenght $L$ was studied imposing an antisymmetric net twist…
In this work, focusing on a critical case for shear flows of nematic liquid crystals, we investigate multiplicity and stability of stationary solutions via the parabolic Ericksen-Leslie system. We establish a one-to-one correspondence…
In this work, we study the nematic-isotropic phase transition based on the dynamics of the Landau--De Gennes theory of liquid crystals. At the critical temperature, the Landau--De Gennes bulk potential favors the isotropic phase and nematic…
We study steady-state thin films on a chemically heterogeneous substrates of finite size, subject to no-flux boundary conditions. Based on the structure of the bifurcation diagram, we classify the one-dimensional steady-state solutions that…
We study the behaviour of global minimizers of a continuum Landau-de Gennes energy functional for nematic liquid crystals, in three-dimensional axially symmetric domains domains diffeomorphic to a ball (a nematic droplet) and in a…
Nematic liquid crystals possess three different phases: isotropic, uniaxial, and biaxial. The ground state of most nematics is either isotropic or uniaxial, depending on the external temperature. Nevertheless, biaxial domains have been…
A continuum theory is employed to numerically study the equilibrium orientation and defect structures of a circular cylindrical particle with flat ends under a homeotropic anchoring condition in a uniform nematic medium. Different aspect…
We analyze the interplay between wetting and anchoring of nematic liquid crystals on disordering, e.g., rough substrates in the framework of the Landau-de Gennes theory, in situations of competing homeotropic and planar easy axes on the…
We study a discrete version of a biaxial nematic liquid crystal model with external fields via an approach based on the solution of differential identities for the partition function. In the thermodynamic limit, we derive the free energy of…
We study uniaxial energy minimizers within the Landau-de Gennes theory for nematic liquid crystals, subject to dirichlet boundary conditions. Topological defects in such minimizers correspond to the zeros of the corresponding equilibrium…
Using novel micro-printing techniques, we develop a versatile experimental setup that allows us to study how lateral confinement tames the active flows and defect properties of the microtubule/kinesin active nematic system. We demonstrate…
Nematic liquid crystals exhibit configurations in which the underlying ordering changes markedly on macroscopic length scales. Such structures include topological defects in the nematic phase and tactoids within nematic-isotropic…
Liquid crystals formed of bent-core molecules are exotic materials that exhibit the twist-bend nematic phase. This arises when an energetic preference for nonzero local bend distortion is accommodated via twist in the texture, resulting in…
We study the chiral symmetry breaking and metastability of confined nematic lyotropic chromonic liquid crystal (LCLC) with and without chiral dopants. The isotropic-nematic coexistence phase of the LCLC renders two confining geometries:…
Mono-layers of stearic and behenic acids deposited with the Langmuir-Blodgett technique, were used as aligning films in nematic liquid crystal cells. During the filling process the liquid crystal adopts a deformed quasi-planar alignment…
Anisotropic rod-like particles form liquid crystalline phases with varying degrees of orientational and translational order. When confined geometrically, these phases can give rise to topological defects, which can be selected and…
We analyze the global phase diagram of a Maier-Saupe lattice model with the inclusion of disorder degrees of freedom to mimic a mixture of oblate and prolate molecules (discs and cylinders). In the neighborhood of a Landau multicritical…