Related papers: Topological Phases and Curvature-Driven Pattern Fo…
We investigate the localized surface modes in a structure consisting of the cholesteric liquid crystal layer, a phase plate, and a metal layer. These modes are analogous to the optical Tamm states. The nonreciprocal transmission of…
Topological states of matter are robust quantum phases, characterised by propagating or localised edge states in an insulating bulk. Topological boundary states can be triggered by various mechanisms, for example by strong spin-orbit…
In biology, cells undergo deformations under the action of flow caused by the fluid surrounding them. These flows lead to shape changes and instabilities that have been explored in detail for single component vesicles. However, cell…
Topological phases of matter are defined by their nontrivial patterns of ground-state quantum entanglement, which is irremovable so long as the excitation gap and the protecting symmetries, if any, are maintained. Recent studies on…
We show that inversion-asymmetric tethered membranes exhibit a new double-spiral phase with long range orientational order not present in symmetric membranes. We calculate the universal algebraic spiral shapes of these membranes in this…
Active-elastic instabilities are common phenomena in the natural world which have the aspect of sudden mechanical morphings. Frequently, the driving force of the instability mechanisms has a chemo-mechanical nature which makes these kind of…
Here we study theoretically the dynamics of a 2D and a 3D isotropic droplet in a nematic liquid crystal under a shear flow. We find a large repertoire of possible nonequilibrium steady states as a function of the shear rate and of the…
Liquid crystals in two dimensions do not support long-ranged nematic order, but a quasi-nematic phase where the orientational correlations decay algebraically is possible. The transition from the isotropic to the quasi-nematic phase can be…
We consider the derivation and numerical solution of the flow of passive and active polar liquid crystals, whose molecular orientation is subjected to a tangential anchoring on an evolving curved surface. The underlying passive model is a…
Using a modified Lennard-Jones model for elliptic particles and spherical impurities, we present results of molecular dynamics simulation in two dimensions. In one-component systems of elliptic particles, we find an orientation phase…
By means of a molecular model, we examine hybrid nematic films with antagonistic anchoring angles where one of the surfaces is in the strong anchoring regime. If anchoring at the other surface is weak, and in the absence of wetting by the…
When considering flows in biological membranes, they are usually treated as flat, though more often than not, they are curved surfaces, even extremely curved, as in the case of the endoplasmic reticulum. Here, we study the topological…
When a rigid object approaches a soft material in a viscous fluid, hydrodynamic stresses arise in the lubricated contact region and deform the soft material. The elastic deformation modifies in turn the flow, hence generating a…
Topological phases of matter have sparked an immense amount of activity in recent decades. Topological materials are classified by topological invariants that act as a non-local order parameter for any symmetry and condition. As a result,…
Spontaneous onset of a low temperature topologically ordered phase in a 2-dimensional (2D) lattice model of uniaxial liquid crystal (LC) was debated extensively pointing to a suspected underlying mechanism affecting the RG flow near the…
We study the relaxation modes of an interface between a lyotropic lamellar phase and a gas or a simple liquid. The response is found to be qualitatively different from those of both simple liquids and single-component smectic-A liquid…
A tethered surface model is investigated by using the canonical Monte Carlo simulation technique on a torus with an intrinsic curvature. We find that the model undergoes a first-order phase transition between the smooth phase and the…
We identify the possibility of realizing higher order topological (HOT) phases in noncrystalline or amorphous materials. Starting from two and three dimensional crystalline HOT insulators, accommodating topological corner states, we…
Using the classical density functional theory of freezing and Monte Carlo computer simulations, we explore the liquid-crystalline phase behavior of hard rectangles on flat and cylindrical manifolds. Moreover, we study the effect of a static…
Higher-form symmetries are a valuable tool for classifying topological phases of matter. However, emergent higher-form symmetries in interacting many-body quantum systems are not typically exact due to the presence of topological defects.…