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arXiv · 1401.6038

Equilibrium configurations of nematic liquid crystals on a torus

Antonio Segatti·Michael Snarski·Marco Veneroni
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Abstract

The topology and the geometry of a surface play a fundamental role in determining the equilibrium configurations of thin films of liquid crystals. We propose here a theoretical analysis of a recently introduced surface Frank energy, in the case of two-dimensional nematic liquid crystals coating a toroidal particle. Our aim is to show how a different modeling of the effect of extrinsic curvature acts as a selection principle among equilibria of the classical energy, and how new configurations emerge. In particular, our analysis predicts the existence of new stable equilibria with complex windings.

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Antonio Segatti, Michael Snarski, Marco Veneroni. 2014-06-13. Equilibrium configurations of nematic liquid crystals on a torus. https://doi.org/10.1103/physreve.90.012501

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