Cr52Spinor Condensate: A Biaxial or Uniaxial Spin Nematic

Core Structure and Non-Abelian Reconnection of Defects in a Biaxial Nematic Spin-2 Bose-Einstein Condensate.

We calculate the energetic structure of defect cores and propose controlled methods to imprint a nontrivially entangled vortex pair that undergoes non-Abelian vortex reconnection in a biaxial nematic spin-2 condensate. For a singular vortex, we find three superfluid cores in addition to depletion of the condensate density. These exhibit order parameter symmetries that are different from the dis...

Homogeneous and Homeotropic Alignment of Bent-Core Uniaxial and Biaxial Nematic Liquid Crystals

The effect of well-established homeotropically and homogeneously aligning polyimides, developed for calamitic liquid crystals, on the alignment of the nematic phases of bent-core mesogens was investigated using polarizing optical microscopy and conoscopy. Two polyimides, the homogeneously aligning SE7792 and the homeotropically aligning S659, were used to align three bent-core mesogens. Two of ...

Quantum control of spin-nematic squeezing in a dipolar spin-1 condensate

Versatile controllability of interactions and magnetic field in ultracold atomic gases ha now reached an era where spin mixing dynamics and spin-nematic squeezing can be studied. Recent experiments have realized spin-nematic squeezed vacuum and dynamic stabilization following a quench through a quantum phase transition. Here we propose a scheme for storage of maximal spin-nematic squeezing, wit...

Polydispersity stabilizes biaxial nematic liquid crystals.

Inspired by the observations of a remarkably stable biaxial nematic phase [van den Pol et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 258301 (2009)], we investigate the effect of size polydispersity on the phase behavior of a suspension of boardlike particles. By means of Onsager theory within the restricted orientation (Zwanzig) model we show that polydispersity induces a novel topology in the phase diagram, w...

Continuum Theory of Biaxial Nematic Liquid Crystals