1,199 research outputs found
Smectic Liquid Crystals: Materials with One-Dimensional, Periodic Order
Smectic liquid crystals are materials formed by stacking deformable, fluid
layers. Though smectics prefer to have flat, uniformly-spaced layers, boundary
conditions can impose curvature on the layers. Since the layer spacing and
curvature are intertwined, the problem of finding minimal configurations for
the layers becomes highly nontrivial. We discuss various topological and
geometrical aspects of these materials and present recent progress on finding
some exact layer configurations. We also exhibit connections to the study of
certain embedded minimal surfaces and briefly summarize some important open
problems.Comment: 16 page
Nonlinear Effects in the TGB_A Phase
We study the nonlinear interactions in the TGB_A phase by using a
rotationally invariant elastic free energy. By deforming a single grain
boundary so that the smectic layers undergo their rotation within a finite
interval, we construct a consistent three-dimensional structure. With this
structure we study the energetics and predict the ratio between the intragrain
and intergrain defect spacing, and compare our results with those from linear
elasticity and experiment.Comment: 4 pages, RevTeX, 2 included eps figure
Structure Function of Polymer Nematic Liquid Crystals: A Monte Carlo Simulation
We present a Monte Carlo simulation of a polymer nematic for varying volume
fractions, concentrating on the structure function of the sample. We achieve
nematic ordering with stiff polymers made of spherical monomers that would
otherwise not form a nematic state. Our results are in good qualitative
agreement with theoretical and experimental predictions, most notably the
bowtie pattern in the static structure function.Comment: 10 pages, plain TeX, macros included, 3 figures available from
archive. Published versio
Dynamics of shallow impact cratering
We present data for the time-dependence of wooden spheres penetrating into a
loose non-cohesive packing of glass beads. The stopping time is a factor of
three longer than the time needed to travel the total penetration
distance at the impact speed . The acceleration decreases
monotonically throughout the impact. These kinematics are modelled by a
position- and velocity-dependent stopping force that is constrained to
reproduce prior observations for the scaling of the penetration depth with the
total drop distance.Comment: 4 pages, experimen
Self-Consistent Field Theory of Multiply-Branched Block Copolymer Melts
We present a numerical algorithm to evaluate the self-consistent field theory
for melts composed of block copolymers with multiply-branched architecture. We
present results for the case of branched copolymers with doubly-functional
groups for multiple branching generations. We discuss the stability of the
cubic phase of spherical micelles, the A15 phase, as a consequence of tendency
of the AB interfaces to conform to the polyhedral environment of the Voronoi
cell of the micelle lattice.Comment: 12 pages, 10 includes figure
Helical Packings and Phase Transformations of Soft Spheres in Cylinders
The phase behavior of helical packings of thermoresponsive microspheres
inside glass capillaries is studied as a function of volume fraction. Stable
packings with long-range orientational order appear to evolve abruptly to
disordered states as particle volume fraction is reduced, consistent with
recent hard sphere simulations. We quantify this transition using correlations
and susceptibilities of the orientational order parameter psi_6. The emergence
of coexisting metastable packings, as well as coexisting ordered and disordered
states, is also observed. These findings support the notion of phase
transition-like behavior in quasi-1D systems.Comment: 5 pages, with additional 4 pages of supplemental material, accepted
to Physical Review E: Rapid Communication
Minimal Surfaces, Screw Dislocations and Twist Grain Boundaries
Large twist-angle grain boundaries in layered structures are often described
by Scherk's first surface whereas small twist-angle grain boundaries are
usually described in terms of an array of screw dislocations. We show that
there is no essential distinction between these two descriptions and that, in
particular, their comparative energetics depends crucially on the core
structure of their screw-dislocation topological defects.Comment: 10 pages, harvmac, 1 included postscript figure, final versio
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