相关论文: Annihilation trajectory of defects in smectic-C fi…

We propose a general formalism to characterize orientational frustration of smectic liquid crystals in confinement by interpreting the emerging networks of grain boundaries as objects with a topological charge. In a formal idealization,…

We investigate the connection between the transport properties and the thermodynamics of electronic systems with a tendency to form broken-symmetry mesophases evocative of the physics of liquid crystals. Through a hydrodynamic approach to…

We discuss the theoretical solution to the differential equations governing accelerating edge dislocations in anisotropic crystals. This is an important prerequisite to understanding high speed dislocation motion, including an open question…

Defects are a ubiquitous feature of ordered media. They have certain universal features, independent of the underlying physical system, reflecting their topological origins. While the topological properties of defects are robust, they…

We consider three-dimensional reshaping of a thin nematoelastic film upon nematic-isotropic transition in the field of a charge one topological defect, leading to either cone or anticone (d-cone) shells. The analysis is based on the…

In the continuum limit, the theory of dislocations in crystals predicts a divergence in the elastic energy of the host material at a crystal geometry dependent limiting (or critical) velocity $v_c$. Explicit expressions for $v_c$ are…

Liquid crystals inevitably possess topological defect excitations generated through boundary conditions, applied fields or in quenches to the ordered phase. In equilibrium pairs of defects coarsen and annihilate as the uniform ground state…

We investigate experimentally and numerically the defect configurations emerging when a cholesteric liquid crystal is confined to a spherical shell. We uncover a rich scenario of defect configurations, some of them non-existent in nematic…

Rod-like objects at high packing fractions can form smectic phases, where the rods break rotational and translational symmetry by forming lamellae. Smectic defects thereby include both discontinuities in the rod orientational order…

We investigate theoretically the elliptical shapes of soft colloids in freely standing smectic C films, that have been reported recently. The colloids favour parallel alignment of the liquid crystal molecules at their surfaces and, for…

We study the motion of a charged particle under the action of a magnetic field with cylindrical symmetry. In particular we consider magnetic fields with constant direction and with magnitude depending on the distance $r$ from the symmetry…

It is argued that topological disorder in amorphous solids can be described by local strains related to local reference crystals and local rotations. An intuitive localization criterion is formulated from this point of view. The Inverse…

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…

We use molecular dynamics to study the ordering of a nematic liquid crystal around a spherical particle or droplet. Homeotropic boundary conditions and strong anchoring create a hedgehog director configuration on the particle surface and in…

Motivated by the general problem of moving topological defects in an otherwise ordered state and specifically, by the anomalous dynamics observed in vortex-antivortex annihilation and coarsening experiments in freely-suspended smectic-C…

We study the dynamics of topological defects in active nematic films with spatially-varying activity and consider two setups: i) a constant activity gradient, and ii) a sharp jump in activity. A constant gradient of extensile (contractile)…

We present theoretical study of a single disclination motion in a thin free standing hexatic (or smectic-C) film, driven by a large-scale inhomogeneity in the bond (or director) angle. Back-flow effects and own dynamics of the bond angle…

We present a general theory of liquid crystals under inhomogeneous electric field in a Ginzburg-Landau scheme. The molecular orientation can be deformed by electric field when the dielectric tensor is orientation-dependent. We then…

Point-like topological defects are singular configurations that occur in a variety of in and out of equilibrium systems with two-dimensional orientational order. As they are associated with a nonzero circuitation condition, the presence of…

Topological defects are a universal concept across many disciplines, such as crystallography, liquid-crystalline physics, low-temperature physics, cosmology, and even biology. In nematic liquid crystals, topological defects called…