We point out that the global symmetries of the Yang-Mills theory in the Landau gauge support existence of variables similar to director fields in liquid crystal systems. We discuss two different types of the liquid crystal variables associated with the group of global Euclidean rotations and with a residual global group of color transformations. These global symmetries allow to identify various...

Employing a time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau model, we investigate the phase ordering kinetics of nematic liquid crystals confined in a narrow pore. We consider various orientations of the surface field and compute domain growth laws and scaling functions. In the absence of any anchoring field we find that ~and in contrast to a confined binary liquid mixture! mere confinement of the liquid crysta...

This thesis describes an investigation of interactions between colloidal particles immersed in a liquid crystal. The presence of colloidal particles in the liquid crystal distorts the director field distorted from its uniform orientation. These elastic distortions produce topological defects around the particles, which induce anisotropic interactions between them, and these anisotropic interact...

We investigate theoretically the wetting properties of cholesteric liquid crystals at a planar substrate. If the properties of substrate and of the interface are such that the cholesteric layers are not distorted, the wetting properties are similar to those of a nematic liquid crystal. If, on the other hand, the anchoring conditions force the distortion of the liquid crystal layers the wetting ...

We provide a model for the total energy of nematic liquid crystal elastomers whose elastic solid backbones have an average shape of non-uniform prolate spheroids along the director of crosslinked liquid crystalline molecules. This energy is a generalization of the Oseen-Frank free energy for nematic liquid crystals, but incorporates coherently the elastic deformation with changes in the shape a...

many isotropic oils, this liquid crystal is not soluble in water. We therefore We have prepared monodisperse suspensions of nematic liquid use an ionic surfactant, sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), to stabilize the crystal droplets in water. The droplets are stabilized by polyvinyl droplets. This allows us to use standard fractionated crystallization methods alcohol, a polymer that induces planar a...

A lipophilic linear Fe(II) complex is dispersed as nanofibers in nematic liquid crystals and displays spin-crossover at temperatures higher than those observed for the bulk crystalline state; thermal bistability is also induced in the liquid crystal environment, reflecting increased ligand field splitting energy and enhanced cooperativity by liquid crystals.

Liquid crystal ordering is an opportunity to develop novel materials and applications with spontaneously aligned nanotubes or graphene particles. Nevertheless, achieving high orientational order parameter and large monodomains remains a challenge. In addition, our restricted knowledge of the structure of the currently available materials is a limitation for fundamental studies and future applic...

Molecular Crystals and Liquid Crystals Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~content=t713644168 Effects of Dielectric Relaxation on the Dynamics and Dielectric Heating of Nematic Liquid Crystals Sergij V. Shiyanovskii a; Andrii B. Golovin a; Ye Yin a; Oleg D. Lavrentovich a a Liquid Crystal Institute and Chem...

A direct observation of the photochemical switching between colloidal crystals with different lattice constants in a liquid-crystal (LC) emulsion is reported. Glycerol droplets introduced in a nematic liquid crystal form two-dimensional hexagonal colloidal crystal at the nematic-air interface with a lattice constant depending on the surface tension sigmaLCA. We dope an azobenzene derivative int...