AI Article Synopsis
- Smectic liquid crystals showcase the complex relationship between broken symmetries, leading to unique defect structures like confocal ellipses and hyperbolas.
- A new effective theory is introduced to numerically study the dynamics of focal conic domains in smectic-A liquid crystals, helping to analyze their behavior.
- Through simulations, insights into the structure, energy density, and shear dynamics are gained, enhancing our understanding of the coarsening processes in focal conic domains.
Article Abstract
Smectic liquid crystals vividly illustrate the subtle interplay of broken translational and orientational symmetries, by exhibiting defect structures forming geometrically perfect confocal ellipses and hyperbolas. Here, we develop and numerically implement an effective theory to study the dynamics of focal conic domains in smectic-A liquid crystals. We use the information about the smectic's structure and energy density provided by our simulations to develop several novel visualization tools for the focal conics. Our simulations accurately describe both simple and extensional shear, which we compare to experiments, and provide additional insight into the coarsening dynamics of focal conic domains.
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| http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.92.062511 | DOI Listing |
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