Related papers: Long-ranged order and flow alignment in sheared $p…
We derive a phase diagram for amorphous solids and liquid supercooled water and explain why the amorphous solids of water exist in several different forms. Application of large-deviation theory allows us to prepare such phases in computer…
The physics of nematic liquid crystals has been subject of intensive research since the late 19th century. However, because of the limitations of chemistry the focus has been centered around uni- and biaxial nematics associated with…
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…
Freezing of charged colloids on square or triangular two-dimensional periodic substrates has been recently shown to realize a rich variety of orientational orders. We propose a theoretical framework to analyze the corresponding structures.…
Nematic ordering describes the phenomenon where anisotropic molecules tend to locally align, like matches in a matchbox. This ordering can arise in solids (as nematic elastomers), liquids (as liquid crystals), and in gases. In the 1940s,…
Topological defects provide a unifying language to describe how orientational order breaks down in active and living matter. Considering cells as elongated particles confluent, epithelial tissues can be interpreted as nematic fields and its…
Recent studies have shown the fluid of hard right triangles to possess fourfold and quasi-eightfold (octatic) orientational symmetries. However, the standard density-functional theory for two-dimensional anisotropic fluids, based on…
Using a generalized order parameter gradient expansion within density functional theory, we derive a phase-field-crystal model for liquid crystals composed by apolar particles in three spatial dimensions. Both the translational density and…
We use linear stability analysis to show that an isotropic phase of elongated particles with dipolar flow fields can develop nematic order as a result of their activity. We argue that ordering is favoured if the particles are flow-aligning…
The emergence of long-range spatiotemporal order from intrinsic chaos is a central challenge in far-from-equilibrium physics. In active fluids, such as cytoskeletal networks driving cellular motion, self-generated flows typically produce…
The framework of anisotropic hydrodynamics is generalized to include finite particle masses. Two schemes are introduced and their predictions compared with exact solutions of the kinetic equation in the relaxation time approximation. The…
There are at least three fundamental states of matter, depending upon temperature and pressure: gas, liquid, and solid (crystal). These states are separated by first-order phase transitions between them. In both gas and liquid phases the…
We propose and study a local map capable of describing the full variety of dynamical states, ranging from regular to chaotic, obtained when a nematic liquid crystal is subjected to a steady shear flow. The map is formulated in terms of a…
In this article we calculate the surface phase diagram of a two-dimensional hard-rod fluid confined between two hard lines. In a first stage we study the semi-infinite system consisting of an isotropic fluid in contact with a single hard…
We consider the hydrodynamics for the biaxial nematic phase characterized by a field of orthonormal frame, which can be derived from a molecular-theory-based tensor model. In dimension two and three, we establish the local well-posedness…
Disclination configurations of a nematic liquid crystal are studied within a self-consistent molecular field theory. The theory is based on a tensor order parameter, and can accommodate anisotropic elastic energies without the known…
Using a version of density-functional theory which combines Onsager approximation and fundamental-measure theory for spatially nonuniform phases, we have studied the phase diagram of freely rotating hard rectangles and hard discorectangles.…
I show that two-dimensional nematic order in an active fluid film can be stable and long-ranged if exchange of particles and momentum with an ambient three-dimensional fluid is allowed. Number-conserving films present an instability, with a…
We investigate through numerical simulations how a two-dimensional crystal yields and flows under an applied shear. We focus over a range that allows us to both address the response in the limit of an infinitesimal shear rate and describe…
In this talk I consider a two-dimensional lattice model for liquid crystals consisting of long rods interacting via purely hard core interactions, with two allowed orientations defined by the underlying lattice. I report a rigorous proof of…