294 research outputs found
Annihilation of edge dislocations in smectic A liquid crystals
This paper presents a theoretical study of the annihilation of edge dislocations in the same smectic plane in a bulk smectic-A phase. We use a time-dependent Landau-Ginzburg approach where the smectic ordering is described by the complex order parameter psi( r--> ,t) =eta e(iphi) . This quantity allows both the degree of layering and the position of the layers to be monitored. We are able to follow both precollision and postcollision regimes, and distinguish different early and late behaviors within these regimes. The early precollision regime is driven by changes in the phi ( r--> ) configuration. The relative velocity of the defects is approximately inversely proportional to the interdefect separation distance. In the late precollision regime the symmetry changes within the cores of defects also become influential. Following the defect collision, in the early postcollision stage, bulk layer order is approached exponentially in time. At very late times, however, there seems to be a long-time power-law tail in the order parameter fluctuation relaxation
Disclinations, dislocations and continuous defects: a reappraisal
Disclinations, first observed in mesomorphic phases, are relevant to a number
of ill-ordered condensed matter media, with continuous symmetries or frustrated
order. They also appear in polycrystals at the edges of grain boundaries. They
are of limited interest in solid single crystals, where, owing to their large
elastic stresses, they mostly appear in close pairs of opposite signs. The
relaxation mechanisms associated with a disclination in its creation, motion,
change of shape, involve an interplay with continuous or quantized dislocations
and/or continuous disclinations. These are attached to the disclinations or are
akin to Nye's dislocation densities, well suited here. The notion of 'extended
Volterra process' takes these relaxation processes into account and covers
different situations where this interplay takes place. These concepts are
illustrated by applications in amorphous solids, mesomorphic phases and
frustrated media in their curved habit space. The powerful topological theory
of line defects only considers defects stable against relaxation processes
compatible with the structure considered. It can be seen as a simplified case
of the approach considered here, well suited for media of high plasticity
or/and complex structures. Topological stability cannot guarantee energetic
stability and sometimes cannot distinguish finer details of structure of
defects.Comment: 72 pages, 36 figure
Nematic liquid crystal dynamics under applied electric fields
In this paper we investigate the dynamics of liquid crystal textures in a
two-dimensional nematic under applied electric fields, using numerical
simulations performed using a publicly available LIquid CRystal Algorithm
(LICRA) developed by the authors. We consider both positive and negative
dielectric anisotropies and two different possibilities for the orientation of
the electric field (parallel and perpendicular to the two-dimensional lattice).
We determine the effect of an applied electric field pulse on the evolution of
the characteristic length scale and other properties of the liquid crystal
texture network. In particular, we show that different types of defects are
produced after the electric field is switched on, depending on the orientation
of the electric field and the sign of the dielectric anisotropy.Comment: 7 pages, 12 figure
Ordered droplet structures at the liquid crystal surface and elastic-capillary colloidal interactions
We demonstrate a variety of ordered patterns, including hexagonal structures
and chains, formed by colloidal particles (droplets) at the free surface of a
nematic liquid crystal (LC). The surface placement introduces a new type of
particle interaction as compared to particles entirely in the LC bulk. Namely,
director deformations caused by the particle lead to distortions of the
interface and thus to capillary attraction. The elastic-capillary coupling is
strong enough to remain relevant even at the micron scale when its
buoyancy-capillary counterpart becomes irrelevant.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures, to be published in Physical Review Letter
Structure of surface vortex sheet between two rotating 3He superfluids
We study a two-phase sample of superfluid 3He where vorticity exists in one
phase (3He-A) but cannot penetrate across the interfacial boundary to a second
coherent phase (3He-B). We calculate the bending of the vorticity into a
surface vortex sheet on the interface and solve the internal structure of this
new type of vortex sheet. The compression of the vorticity from three to two
dimensions enforces a structure which is made up of half-quantum units,
independently of the structure of the source vorticity in the bulk. These
results are consistent with our NMR measurements.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Disclination in Lorentz Space-Time
The disclination in Lorentz space-time is studied in detail by means of
topological properties of -mapping. It is found the space-time
disclination can be described in term of a Dirac spinor. The size of the
disclination, which is proved to be the difference of two sets of su(2)% -like
monopoles expressed by two mixed spinors, is quantized topologically in terms
of topological invariantswinding number. The projection of space-time
disclination density along an antisymmetric tensor field is characterized by
Brouwer degree and Hopf index.Comment: Revtex, 7 page
Kramers rate theory of ionization and dissociation of bound states
Calculating the microscopic dissociation rate of a bound state, such as a
classical diatomic molecule, has been difficult so far. The problem was that
standard theories require an energy barrier over which the bound particle (or
state) escapes into the preferred low-energy state. This is not the case when
the long-range repulsion responsible for the barrier is either absent or
screened (as in Cooper pairs, ionized plasma, or biomolecular complexes). We
solve this classical problem by accounting for entropic memory at the
microscopic level. The theory predicts dissociation rates for arbitrary
potentials and is successfully tested on the example of plasma, where it yields
an estimate of ionization in the core of Sun in excellent agreement with
experiments. In biology, the new theory accounts for crowding in
receptor-ligand kinetics and protein aggregation
Electric-field-induced nematic-cholesteric transition and 3-D director structures in homeotropic cells
We study the phase diagram of director structures in cholesteric liquid
crystals of negative dielectric anisotropy in homeotropic cells of thickness d
which is smaller than the cholesteric pitch p. The basic control parameters are
the frustration ratio d/p and the applied voltage U. Fluorescence Confocal
Polarising Microscopy allows us to directly and unambiguously determine the 3-D
director structures. The results are of importance for potential applications
of the cholesteric structures, such as switchable gratings and eyewear with
tunable transparency based.Comment: Will be published in Physical Review
Effects of Anomalous Magnetic Moment in the Quantum Motion of Neutral Particle in Magnetic and Electric Fields Produced by a Linear Source in a Conical Spacetime
In this paper we analyse the effect of the anomalous magnetic moment on the
non-relativistic quantum motion of a neutral particle in magnetic and electric
fields produced by linear sources of constant current and charge density,
respectively.Comment: 17 pages, no figur
Points, Walls and Loops in Resonant Oscillatory Media
In an experiment of oscillatory media, domains and walls are formed under the
parametric resonance with a frequency double the natural one. In this bi-stable
system, %phase jumps by crossing walls. a nonequilibrium transition from
Ising wall to Bloch wall consistent with prediction is confirmed
experimentally. The Bloch wall moves in the direction determined by its
chirality with a constant speed. As a new type of moving structure in
two-dimension, a traveling loop consisting of two walls and Neel points is
observed.Comment: 9 pages (revtex format) and 6 figures (PostScript
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