Related papers: Phase Transitions in Lyotropic Nematic Gels
When liquid-crystalline elastomers pass through the isotropic-nematic transition, the orientational order parameter and the elastic strain vary rapidly but smoothly, without the expected first-order discontinuity. This broadening of the…
Polyhedral nematics are examples of exotic orientational phases that possess a complex internal symmetry, representing highly non-trivial ways of rotational symmetry breaking, and are subject to current experimental pursuits in colloidal…
Spinodal demixing of systems into two phases having very different viscosities leads to viscoelastic networks, i.e. gels. Here we consider demixing in a colloidal system where one phase is a nematic liquid crystal with a strongly…
The transition from a nematic to an isotropic state in a self-closing spherical liquid crystal shell with tangential alignment is a stimulating phenomenon to investigate, as the topology dictates that the shell exhibits local isotropic…
This paper reviews the research work on the liquid crystalline (LC) polymer vesicles (polymersomes), where the thermotropic nematic and smectic phases are displayed in the lyotropic bilayer polymer membrane. LC polymersomes possess the…
We examine dense self-gravitating stellar systems dominated by a central potential, such as nuclear star clusters hosting a central supermassive black hole. Different dynamical properties of these systems evolve on vastly different…
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…
We study the kinetics of the nematic-isotropic transition in a two-dimensional liquid crystal by using a lattice Boltzmann scheme that couples the tensor order parameter and the flow consistently. Unlike in previous studies, we find the…
Simulations of nematic-isotropic transition of liquid crystals in two dimensions are performed using an O(2) vector model characterised by non linear nearest neighbour spin interaction governed by the fourth Legendre polynomial $P\_4$. The…
We study numerically the rheological properties of a slab of active gel close o the isotropic-nematic transition. The flow behavior shows strong dependence on sample size, boundary conditions, and on the bulk constitutive curve, which, on…
Molecular anisotropy plays an important role in the glass transition of a liquid. Recently, a novel bulk glass state has been discovered by optical microscopy experiments on suspensions of ellipsoidal colloids. 'Liquid glass' is a…
Motivated by the need for greater understanding of systems that involve interfaces between a nematic liquid crystal, a solid substrate, and a passive gas that includes nematic--substrate--gas three-phase contact lines, we analyse a…
We study the influence of fluctuations in molecular shape on the stability of the biaxial nematic phase by generalizing the mean field model of Mulder and Ruijgrok [Physica A {\bf 113}, 145 (1982)]. We limit ourselves to the case when the…
We study a microscopically realistic model of a physical gel and use computer simulations to investigate its static and dynamic properties at thermal equilibrium. The phase diagram comprises a sol phase, a coexistence region ending at a…
The effect of rough walls on the phase behaviour of a confined liquid crystal (LC) fluid is studied using constant pressure Monte Carlo simulations. The LC is modelled as a fluid of soft ellipsoidal molecules and the rough walls are…
We use numerical simulations to investigate the hydrodynamic behavior of the interface between nematic (N) and isotropic (I) phases of a confined active liquid crystal. At low activities, a stable interface with constant shape and velocity…
Rod-shaped colloids with attractive tips can form linear aggregates that may subsequently undergo hierarchical self-assembly into nematic fluids. Inspired by recent modelling efforts on chromonic liquid crystals, composed of discotic…
Mixtures of nematic liquid crystals and isotropic fluids display a diverse range of phase behaviors, arising from the coupling between orientational order and concentration fluctuations. In this review, we introduce a simplified…
We study the phase behaviour of hard rods with length polydispersity, treated within a simplified version of the Onsager model. We give a detailed description of the unusual phase behaviour of the system when the rod length distribution has…
We report the phase diagram of two-dimensional hard ellipses as obtained from replica exchange Monte Carlo simulations. The replica exchange is implemented by expanding the isobaric ensemble in pressure. The phase diagram shows four…