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Disclination lines in three-dimensional nematic liquid crystals generically form closed loops whose topology is classified by homotopy theory. While this classification successfully captures global topological features, it does not encode…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2026-05-27 F. Aprile , A. J. H. Houston , G. Gonnella , D. Marenduzzo , T. N. Shendruk , G. Negro

Observing and characterizing the complex ordering phenomena of liquid crystals subjected to external constraints constitutes an ongoing challenge for chemists and physicists alike. To elucidate the delicate balance appearing when the…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2022-09-27 Paul A. Monderkamp , René Wittmann , Michael te Vrugt , Axel Voigt , Raphael Wittkowski , Hartmut Löwen

Topological defects play a pivotal role in the physics of liquid crystals and represent one of the most prominent and well studied aspects of mesophases. While in two-dimensional nematics, disclinations are traditionally treated as…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2016-07-28 Arthur J. Vromans , Luca Giomi

Much recent progress has been made in the study of nematic solids, both glassy and elastomeric, particularly in the realm of stress-free, defect-driven deformation in thin sheets of material. In this paper we consider a subset of texture…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2013-02-11 Carl D. Modes , Mark Warner

Manipulating topological disclination networks that arise in a symmetry-breaking phase transfor- mation in widely varied systems including anisotropic materials can potentially lead to the design of novel materials like conductive…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2017-12-19 Amit Kumar Bhattacharjee

Topological defects are one of the most conspicuous features of liquid crystals. In two dimensional nematics, they have been shown to behave effectively as particles with both, charge and orientation, which dictate their interactions. Here,…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2021-07-14 Daniel J. G. Pearce , Karsten Kruse

The director configuration of disclination lines in nematic liquid crystals in the presence of an external magnetic field is evaluated. Our method is a combination of a polynomial expansion for the director and of further analytical…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2009-10-30 Henryk Arodz , Joachim Stelzer

This review introduces the elasticity theory of two-dimensional crystals and nematic liquid crystals on curved surfaces, the energetics of topological defects (disclinations, dislocations and pleats) in these ordered phases, and the…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2014-01-21 Vinzenz Koning , Vincenzo Vitelli

We study the equilibrium shapes of vesicles, with an in-plane nematic order, using a Monte-Carlo scheme and show that highly curved shapes, like tubes and discs, with a striking similarity to the structures engendered by certain curvature…

Biological Physics · Physics 2012-02-16 N. Ramakrishnan , John H. Ipsen , P. B. Sunil Kumar

A two-dimensional or quasi-two-dimensional nematic liquid crystal refers to a surface confined system. When such a system is further confined by external line boundaries or excluded from internal line boundaries, the nematic directors form…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2022-04-27 Xiaomei Yao , Lei Zhang , Jeff Z. Y. Chen

Nematic colloids exhibit a large diversity of topological defects and structures induced by colloidal particles in the orientationally ordered liquid crystal host fluids. These defects and field configurations define elastic interactions…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2016-12-30 Bohdan Senyuk , Qingkun Liu , Ye Yuan , Ivan I. Smalyukh

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…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2021-11-15 Maria-Carme Calderer , Ashley Earls

We numerically investigate the morphology and disclination line dynamics of active nematic droplets in three dimensions. Although our model only incorporates the simplest possible form of achiral active stress, active nematic droplets…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2021-04-07 Liam J. Ruske , Julia M. Yeomans

Recent experimental observations have suggested that topological defects can facilitate the creation of sharp features in developing embryos. Whereas these observations echo established knowledge about the interplay between geometry and…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2023-07-25 Ludwig A. Hoffmann , Livio Nicola Carenza , Luca Giomi

While studies of active nematics in two dimensions have shed light on various aspects of the flow regimes and topology of active matter, three-dimensional properties of topological defects and chaotic flows remain unexplored. By confining a…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2018-07-18 Tyler N. Shendruk , Kristian Thijssen , Julia M. Yeomans , Amin Doostmohammadi

We introduce a characterization of disclination lines in three dimensional nematic liquid crystals as a tensor quantity related to the so called rotation vector around the line. This quantity is expressed in terms of the nematic tensor…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2022-03-11 Cody D. Schimming , Jorge Viñals

We discuss a method for producing automatic 3D connections at right places between substrates in front to one another. The idea is based on the materialization of disclination lines working as templates. The lines are first created in the…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2013-12-20 Hakam Agha , Jean-Baptiste Fleury , Yves Galerne

The topological understanding of nematic liquid crystals is traditionally centered on singularities, or defects, and their classification via homotopy theory. However, this approach has ultimately proved insufficient to properly capture a…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2024-08-05 Joseph Pollard , Richard G. Morris

The properties of liquid crystals can be modelled using an order parameter which describes the variability of the local orientation of rod-like molecules. Defects in the director field can arise due to external factors such as applied…

Numerical Analysis · Mathematics 2019-10-08 Craig S. MacDonald , John A. Mackenzie , Alison Ramage

We study spreading dynamics of nematic liquid crystal droplets within the framework of the long-wave approximation. A fourth order nonlinear parabolic partial differential equation governing the free surface evolution is derived. The…

Fluid Dynamics · Physics 2013-07-19 Te-Sheng Lin , Lou Kondic , Uwe Thiele , Linda J. Cummings