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Anisotropic fluids, such as nematic liquid crystals, can form non-spherical equilibrium shapes known as tactoids. Predicting the shape of these structures as a function of material parameters is challenging and paradigmatic of a broader…
We develop a description of defect loops in three-dimensional active nematics based on a multipole expansion of the far-field director and show how this leads to a self-dynamics dependent on the loop's geometric type. The dipole term leads…
The study of liquid crystals at equilibrium has led to fundamental insights into the nature of ordered materials, as well as to practical applications such as display technologies. Active nematics are a fundamentally different class of…
This paper presents a pure complementary energy variational method for solving anti-plane shear problem in finite elasticity. Based on the canonical duality-triality theory developed by the author, the nonlinear/nonconex partial…
A new class of disk MHD equilibrium solutions is described, which is valid within the standard local (``shearing sheet'') approximation scheme. These solutions have the following remarkable property: velocity streamlines and magnetic lines…
Active matter is characterized by its ability to induce motion by self-generated stress. In the case of a solid, such motion can lead to shape transformations. The stress-generating components can be anisotropic endowing the material with…
In this work we present the first systematic framework to sculpt active nematics systems, using optimal control theory and a hydrodynamic model of active nematics. We demonstrate the use of two different control fields, (1) applied…
We consider a two-dimensional, two-layer, incompressible, steady flow, with vorticity which is constant in each layer, in an infinite channel with rigid walls. The velocity is continuous across the interface, there is no surface tension or…
Inspired by recent experiments that highlight the role of nematic defects in the morphogenesis of epithelial tissues, we develop a minimal framework to study the dynamics of an active curved surface driven by its nematic texture. Allowing…
Topological defects are distinctive signatures of liquid crystals. They profoundly affect the viscoelastic behavior of the fluid by constraining the orientational structure in a way that inevitably requires global changes not achievable…
We use continuum simulations to study the impact of friction on the ordering of defects in an active nematic. Even in a frictionless system, +1/2 defects tend to align side-by-side and orient antiparallel reflecting their propensity to…
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…
We study nematic equilibria in an unbounded domain, with a two-dimensional regular polygonal hole with $K$ edges, in a reduced Landau-de Gennes framework. This complements our previous work on the "interior problem" for nematic equilibria…
Recent numerical simulations of lid-driven cavity flow of a nematic liquid crystal have found dynamical behavior where topological defects rotate about the center of the fluid vortex induced by the lid motion. By considering a simpler…
Two nematic shells brought in contact coalesce in order to reduce their interfacial tension. This process proceeds through the creation of a liquid neck-like bridge through which the encapsulated fluid flows. Following this topological…
We are concerned with underlying connections between fluids, elasticity, isometric embedding of Riemannian manifolds, and the existence of wrinkled solutions of the associated nonlinear partial differential equations. In this paper, we…
We investigate several models described by real scalar fields, searching for topological defects. Some models are described by a single field, and support one or two topological sectors, and others are two-field models, which support…
The present contribution investigates shape optimisation problems for a class of semilinear elliptic variational inequalities with Neumann boundary conditions. Sensitivity estimates and material derivatives are firstly derived in an…
Colloids dispersed in nematic liquid crystals form topological composites in which colloid-associated defects mediate interactions while adhering to fundamental topological constraints. Better realising the promise of such materials…
We demonstrate that field theories involving explicit breaking of continous symmetries, incorporate two generic classes of topological defects each of which is stable for a particular range of parameters. The first class includes defects of…