Line defects in the small elastic constant limit of a three-dimensional Landau-de Gennes model

We consider the Landau-de Gennes variational model for nematic liquid crystals, in three-dimensional domains. More precisely, we study the asymptotic behaviour of minimizers as the elastic constant tends to zero, under the assumption that minimizers are uniformly bounded and their energy blows up as the logarithm of the elastic constant. We show that there exists a closed set S of finite length, such that minimizers converge to a locally harmonic map away from S. Moreover, S restricted to the interior of the domain is a locally finite union of straight line segments. We provide sufficient conditions, depending on the domain and the boundary data, under which our main results apply. We also discuss some examples.Comment: 71 pages, 5 figure

Biaxiality in the asymptotic analysis of a 2-D Landau-de Gennes model for liquid crystals

We consider the Landau-de Gennes variational problem on a bound\-ed, two dimensional domain, subject to Dirichlet smooth boundary conditions. We prove that minimizers are maximally biaxial near the singularities, that is, their biaxiality parameter reaches the maximum value $1$. Moreover, we discuss the convergence of minimizers in the vanishing elastic constant limit. Our asymptotic analysis is performed in a general setting, which recovers the Landau-de Gennes problem as a specific case.Comment: 34 pages, 2 figures; typos corrected, minor changes in proofs. Results are unchange

Improved partial regularity for manifold-constrained minimisers of subquadratic energies

We consider minimising $p$-harmonic maps from three-dimensional domains to the real projective plane, for $1<p<2$. These maps arise as least-energy configurations in variational models for nematic liquid crystals. We show that the singular set of such a map decomposes into a $1$-dimensional set, which can be physically interpreted as a non-orientable line defect, and a locally finite set, i.e. a collection of point defects.Comment: New version: typos and inaccuracies fixe

Convergence properties for a generalization of the Caginalp phase field system

We are concerned with a phase field system consisting of two partial differential equations in terms of the variables thermal displacement, that is basically the time integration of temperature, and phase parameter. The system is a generalization of the well-known Caginalp model for phase transitions, when including a diffusive term for the thermal displacement in the balance equation and when dealing with an arbitrary maximal monotone graph, along with a smooth anti-monotone function, in the phase equation. A Cauchy-Neumann problem has been studied for such a system in arXiv:1107.3950v2 [math.AP], by proving well-posedness and regularity results, as well as convergence of the problem as the coefficient of the diffusive term for the thermal displacement tends to zero. The aim of this contribution is rather to investigate the asymptotic behaviour of the problem as the coefficient in front of the Laplacian of the temperature goes to 0: this analysis is motivated by the types III and II cases in the thermomechanical theory of Green and Naghdi. Under minimal assumptions on the data of the problems, we show a convergence result. Then, with the help of uniform regularity estimates, we discuss the rate of convergence for the difference of the solutions in suitable norms.Comment: Key words: phase field model, initial-boundary value problem, regularity of solutions, convergence, error estimate

Order Reconstruction for Nematics on Squares and Regular Polygons: A Landau-de Gennes Study

We construct an order reconstruction (OR)-type Landau-de Gennes critical point on a square domain of edge length $\lambda$, motivated by the well order reconstruction solution numerically reported by Kralj and Majumdar. The OR critical point is distinguished by an uniaxial cross with negative scalar order parameter along the square diagonals. The OR critical point is defined in terms of a saddle-type critical point of an associated scalar variational problem. The OR-type critical point is globally stable for small $\lambda$ and undergoes a supercritical pitchfork bifurcation in the associated scalar variational setting. We consider generalizations of the OR-type critical point to a regular hexagon, accompanied by numerical estimates of stability criteria of such critical points on both a square and a hexagon in terms of material-dependent constants.Comment: 29 pages, 12 figure

Line defects in the vanishing elastic constant limit of a three-dimensional Landau-de Gennes model

62 pages, 4 figures.We consider the Landau-de Gennes variational model for nematic liquid crystals, in three-dimensional domains. We are interested in the asymptotic behaviour of minimizers as the elastic constant tends to zero. Assuming that the energy of minimizers is bounded by the logarithm of the elastic constant, there exists a relatively closed, 1-rectiable set S line of nite length, such that minimizers converge to a locally harmonic map away from S line. We provide sucient conditions for the logarithmic energy bound to be satised. Finally, we show by an example that the limit map may have both point and line singularities

Polydispersity and surface energy strength in nematic colloids

We consider a Landau-de Gennes model for a polydisperse, inhomogeneous suspension of colloidal inclusions in a nematic host, in the dilute regime. We study the homogenised limit and compute the effective free energy of the composite material. By suitably choosing the shape of the inclusions and imposing a quadratic, Rapini-Papoular type surface anchoring energy density, we obtain an effective free energy functional with an additional linear term, which may be interpreted as an "effective field" induced by the inclusions. Moreover, we compute the effective free energy in a regime of "very strong anchoring", that is, when the surface energy effects dominate over the volume free energy.Comment: 24 pages, 1 figur

Dynamics of Ginzburg-Landau vortices for vector fields on surfaces

In this paper we consider the gradient flow of the following Ginzburg-Landau type energy $$F_\varepsilon(u) := \frac{1}{2}\int_{M}\vert D u\vert_g^2 +\frac{1}{2\varepsilon^2}\left(\vert u\vert_g^2-1\right)^2\mathrm{vol}_g.$$ This energy is defined on tangent vector fields on a $2$-dimensional closed and oriented Riemannian manifold $M$ (here $D$ stands for the covariant derivative) and depends on a small parameter $\varepsilon>0$. If the energy satisfies proper bounds, when $\varepsilon\to 0$ the second term forces the vector fields to have unit length. However, due to the incompatibility for vector fields on $M$ between the Sobolev regularity and the unit norm constraint, critical points of $F_\varepsilon$ tend to generate a finite number of singular points (called vortices) having non-zero index (when the Euler characteristic is non-zero). These types of problems have been extensively analyzed in a recent paper by R. Ignat and R. Jerrard. As in Euclidean case, the position of the vortices is ruled by the so-called renormalized energy. In this paper we are interested in the dynamics of vortices. We rigorously prove that the vortices move according to the gradient flow of the renormalized energy, which is the limit behavior when $\varepsilon\to 0$ of the gradient flow of the Ginzburg-Landau energy.Comment: 71 pages, 1 figur