No Arabic abstract
Within the framework of liquid crystal flows, the Qian & Sheng (QS) model for Q-tensor dynamics is compared to the Volovik & Kats (VK) theory of biaxial nematics by using Hamiltons variational principle. Under the assumption of rotational dynamics for the Q-tensor, the variational principles underling the two theories are equivalent and the conservative VK theory emerges as a specialization of the QS model. Also, after presenting a micropolar variant of the VK model, Rayleigh dissipation is included in the treatment. Finally, the treatment is extended to account for nontrivial eigenvalue dynamics in the VK model and this is done by considering the effect of scaling factors in the evolution of the Q-tensor.
We report experimental and numerical evidences that the dynamics of the director of a liquid crystal driven by an electric field close to the critical point of the Freedericksz Transition(FT) is not described by a Landau-Ginzburg (LG) equation as it is usually done in literature. The reasons are related to the very crude approximations done to obtain this equation, to the finite value of the anchoring energy and to small asymmetries on boundary conditions. We also discuss the difference between the use of LG equation for the statics and the dynamics. These results are useful in all cases where FT is used as an example for other orientational transitions.
Upon combining Northrops picture of charged particle motion with modern liquid crystal theories, this paper provides a new description of guiding center dynamics (to lowest order). This new perspective is based on a rotation gauge field (gyrogauge) that encodes rotations around the magnetic field. In liquid crystal theory, an analogue rotation field is used to encode the rotational state of rod-like molecules. Instead of resorting to sophisticated tools (e.g. Hamiltonian perturbation theory and Lie series expansions) that still remain essential in higher-order gyrokinetics, the present approach combines the WKB method with a simple kinematical ansatz, which is then replaced into the charged particle Lagrangian. The latter is eventually averaged over the gyrophase to produce Littlejohns guiding-center equations. A crucial role is played by the vector potential for the gyrogauge field. A similar vector potential is related to liquid crystal defects and is known as `wryness tensor in Eringens micropolar theory.
We study the flow behaviour of a twist-bend nematic $(N_{TB})$ liquid crystal. It shows three distinct shear stress ($sigma$) responses in a certain range of temperatures and shear rates ($dot{gamma}$). In Region-I, $sigmasimsqrt{dot{gamma}}$, in region-II, the stress shows a plateau, characterised by a power law $sigmasim{dot{gamma}}^{alpha}$, where $alphasim0.1-0.4$ and in region-III, $sigmasimdot{gamma}$. With increasing shear rate, $sigma$ changes continuously from region-I to II, whereas it changes discontinuously with a hysteresis from region-II to III. In the plateau (region-II), we observe a dynamic stress fluctuations, exhibiting regular, periodic and quasiperiodic oscillations under the application of steady shear. The observed spatiotemporal dynamics in our experiments are close to those were predicted theoretically in sheared nematogenic fluids.
Field-induced reorientation of colloidal particles is especially relevant to manipulate the optical properties of a nanomaterial for target applications. We have recently shown that surprisingly feeble external stimuli are able to transform uniaxial nematic liquid crystals (LCs) of cuboidal particles into biaxial nematic LCs. In the light of these results, here we apply an external field that forces the reorientation of colloidal cuboids in nematic LCs and sparks a uniaxial-to-biaxial texture switching. By Dynamic Monte Carlo simulation, we investigate the unsteady-state reorientation dynamics at the particle scale when the field is applied (uniaxial-to-biaxial switching) and then removed (biaxial-to-uniaxial switching). We detect a strong correlation between the response time, being the time taken for the system to reorient, and particle anisotropy, which spans from rod-like to plate-like geometries. Interestingly, self-dual shaped cuboids, theoretically considered as the most suitable to promote phase biaxiality for being exactly in between prolate and oblate particles, exhibit surprisingly slow response times, especially if compared to prolate cuboids.
We study a generalization of the isomonodromic deformation to the case of connections with irregular singularities. We call this generalization Isostokes Deformation. A new deformation parameter arises: one can deform the formal normal forms of connections at irregular points. We study this part of the deformation, giving an algebraic description. Then we show how to use loop groups and hypercohomology to write explicit hamiltonians. We work on an arbitrary complete algebraic curve, the structure group is an arbitrary semisimiple group.