Dimension reduction for the Landau-de Gennes model on curved nematic thin films

We use the method of $\Gamma$-convergence to study the behavior of the Landau-de Gennes model for a nematic liquid crystalline film attached to a general fixed surface in the limit of vanishing thickness. This paper generalizes the approach that we used previously to study a similar problem for a planar surface. Since the anchoring energy dominates when the thickness of the film is small, it is essential to understand its influence on the structure of the minimizers of the limiting energy. In particular, the anchoring energy dictates the class of admissible competitors and the structure of the limiting problem. We assume general weak anchoring conditions on the top and the bottom surfaces of the film and strong Dirichlet boundary conditions on the lateral boundary of the film when the surface is not closed. We establish a general convergence result to an energy defined on the surface that involves a somewhat surprising remnant of the normal component of the tensor gradient. Then we exhibit one effect of curvature through an analysis of the behavior of minimizers to the limiting problem when the substrate is a frustrum

Singularly perturbed hyperbolic problems on metric graphs: asymptotics of solutions

We are interested in evolution phenomena on star-like networks composed of several branches which vary considerably in physical properties. The initial boundary value problem for singularly perturbed hyperbolic differential equation on a metric graph is studied. The hyperbolic equation becomes degenerate on a part of the graph as a small parameter goes to zero. In addition, the rates of degeneration may differ in different edges of the graph. Using the boundary layer method the complete asymptotic expansions of solutions are constructed and justified.Comment: 18 pages, 3 figure