Defects in Liquid Crystals: Computer Simulations, Theory and Experiments

✍ Scribed by H.-R. Trebin (auth.), Oleg D. Lavrentovich, Paolo Pasini, Claudio Zannoni, Slobodan Žumer (eds.)

• Publisher: Springer Netherlands
• Year: 2001
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 355
• Series: NATO Science Series 43
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Topological defects are the subject of intensive studies in many different branches of physics ranging from cosmology to liquid crystals and from elementary particles to colloids and biological systems. Liquid crystals are fascinating materials which present a great variety of these mathematical objects and can therefore be considered as an extremely useful laboratory for topological defects.
This book is the first attempt to present together complementary approaches to the investigations of topological defects in liquid crystals using theory, experiments and computer simulations.

✦ Table of Contents

Front Matter....Pages i-xv
Classification of Defects in Liquid Crystals....Pages 1-16
Alignment Tensor Versus Director Description in Nematic Liquid Crystals....Pages 17-36
Liquid Crystal Colloidal Dispersions....Pages 37-85
Computer Simulations and Defects in Confined Liquid Crystal Lattice Models....Pages 87-112
Molecular Simulations and Theory of Planar Interfaces and Defects in Nematic Liquid Crystals....Pages 113-139
Topological Defect Behavior in a Quenched Nematic Liquid Crystal....Pages 141-165
Restoring Forces on Nematic Disclinations....Pages 167-184
Challenges in the Dynamics of Point Defects....Pages 185-200
Numerical Simulation of Elastic Anisotropy in Nematic Liquid Crystalline Polymers....Pages 201-228
Computer Simulations and Fluorescence Confocal Polarizing Microscopy of Structures in Cholesteric Liquid Crystals....Pages 229-270
Defects and Undulation in Layered Liquid Crystals....Pages 271-300
Liquid Crystals Under Shear: Role of Defects....Pages 301-322
Numerical Simulation of Defects in Quasicrystals....Pages 323-336
Back Matter....Pages 337-344

✦ Subjects

Condensed Matter Physics;Statistical Physics, Dynamical Systems and Complexity;Theoretical, Mathematical and Computational Physics;Classical Continuum Physics