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BPS Configurations in Smectics

C. D. Santangelo·Randall D. Kamien
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Abstract

It is typical in smectic liquid crystals to describe elastic deformations with a linear theory when the elastic strain is small. We extend the recent, exact solution of Brener and Marchenko to more general one-dimensional deformations, including multiple edge dislocations by relying on the Bogomol'nyi, Prasad and Sommerfield (BPS) decomposition. We introduce an approximation for the deformation profile far from a spherical inclusion and find an enhanced attractive interaction at long distances due to the nonlinear elasticity.

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C. D. Santangelo, Randall D. Kamien. 2003-07-21. BPS Configurations in Smectics. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.91.045506

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