相关论文: Characterization of Geometric Structures of Biaxia…

Nematic liquid crystals exhibit configurations in which the underlying ordering changes markedly on macroscopic length scales. Such structures include topological defects in the nematic phase and tactoids within nematic-isotropic…

Both uniaxial and biaxial nematic liquid crystals are defined by orientational ordering of their building blocks. While uniaxial nematics only orient the long molecular axis, biaxial order implies local order along three axes. As the…

Recent experiments report that the long looked for thermotropic biaxial nematic phase has been finally detected in some thermotropic liquid crystalline systems. Inspired by these experimental observations we concentrate on some elementary…

We study nematic liquid crystal configurations in confined geometries within the continuum Landau--De Gennes theory. These nematic configurations are mathematically described by symmetric, traceless two-tensor fields, known as…

A comprehensive framework of characterizing complex self-assembled structures with a set of orientational order parameters is presented. It is especially relevant in the context of using anisotropic building blocks with various symmetries.…

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…

A generalized notion of a nonlocal tensor order parameter is introduced within the framework of the phenomenological approach. This parameter has the form of a traceless tensor correlation function or a tensor integral operator. Based on…

We present a numerical method, based on a tensor order parameter description of a nematic phase, that allows fully anisotropic elasticity. Our method thus extends the Landau-de Gennes $\mathbf{Q}$-tensor theory to anisotropic phases. A…

The emergence of nematic order on deformable closed surfaces plays a pivotal role in the morphogenesis of active biological matter, such as the regeneration of Hydra. In this work, we present a continuum model that couples the…

An exact kinematic law for the motion of disclination lines in nematic liquid crystals as a function of the tensor order parameter $\mathbf{Q}$ is derived. Unlike other order parameter fields that become singular at their respective defect…

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 consider an infinitesimal volume where there are many rigid molecules of the same kind, and discuss the description and classification of the local anisotropy in this volume by tensors. First, we examine the symmetry of a rigid molecule,…

Topological order has been proposed to go beyond Landau symmetry breaking theory for more than twenty years. But it is still a challenging problem to generally detect it in a generic many-body state. In this paper, we will introduce a…

The phase-ordering kinetics of a bulk uniaxial nematic liquid crystal is addressed using techniques that have been successfully applied to describe ordering in the O(n) model. The method involves constructing an appropriate mapping between…

Spontaneous symmetry breaking is well understood through the classical "Mexican Hat" picture, which describes many quantum phases of matter. Recently, several new classes of quantum phases of matter, such as topological orders and symmetry…

The concept of symmetry breaking has been a propelling force in understanding phases of matter. While rotational symmetry breaking is one of the most prevalent examples, the rich landscape of orientational orders breaking the rotational…

Predicting the alignment of non-spherical particles in dense granular flows under shear remains a central challenge in soft matter physics. We demonstrate that the first-order behavior of granular fabric,the anisotropic distribution of…

In primary school, we were told that there are four phases of matter: solid, liquid, gas, and plasma. In college, we learned that there are much more than four phases of matter, such as hundreds of crystal phases, liquid crystal phases,…

We propose a simple surface potential favoring the planar degenerate anchoring of nematic liquid crystals, i.e., the tendency of the molecules to align parallel to one another along any direction parallel to the surface. We show that, at…

We study the symmetry and the spatial uniformity of orientational order of the biaxial nematic phase in the light of recent experimental observations of phase biaxiality in thermotropic bent-core and calamitic-tetramer nematics. We present…