Séminaire d'Analyse

Singularities in Nematic Liquid Crystals Colloids: From Homeotropic to Planar Boundary Conditions

by Dominik Stantejsky (McMaster University)

Europe/Paris
Amphi Schwartz / Zoom

Amphi Schwartz / Zoom

Description
Liquid crystals are a type of matter with properties intermediate between a liquid and a crystalline solid. They are known to exhibit a rich defects structure of points and/or lines making the mathematical description both interesting and challenging. After a general introduction about the variational modelling of liquid crystals, we will focus on the influence of immersed particles on the formation of such defects. I will present results regarding the type and shape of singularities in the case of normal (homeotropic) surface alignment, followed by a discussion on how to extend some of those results to the case of tangential (planar) anchoring.