Mathematics and its Applications Seminar
Ibrahim Fatkullin
University of Arizona
Nematic liquid crystals: from Onsager model to vortices
Abstract: In 1949 Lars Onsager introduced a variational model describing
isotropic-nematic phase transition in liquid crystals. In this model
equilibrium states of a liquid-crystalline system correspond to
minimizers of a free energy functional. I will review the model and
present a complete classification of all critical points of the Onsager
functional with Maier-Saupe interaction. Then I will present an
extension of Onsager's theory which takes into account spatial
variations of nematic ordering and provide a detailed description of
vortex-like patterns which appear in a two-dimensional model.
Wednesday November 11, 2009 at 4:00 PM in SEO 636