Orateur
Giacomo Canevari
(Basque Center for Applied Mathematics, Bilbao, Espagne)
Description
Nematic liquid crystals are matter in an intermediate phase between the solid and the liquid ones. The constituent molecules, while isotropically distributed in space, retain long-range orientational order. The classical variational theories for nematic liquid crystals are quadratic in the gradient and as a consequence, configurations with a singular line have infinite energy within these theories. On the other hand, line defects are commonly observed in these materials. Based on this observation, Ball and Bedford have proposed models with subquadratic growth in the gradient. In this talk, we discuss some properties of a subquadratic Landau-de Gennes model and its relations with the models that have been proposed by Ball and Bedford. The talk is based on a joint work with Giandomenico Orlandi (University of Verona, Italy) and on a work in progress with Apala Majumdar (University of Bath, UK) and Bianca Stroffolini (University of Naples Federico II, Italy).
Auteur principal
Giacomo Canevari
(Basque Center for Applied Mathematics, Bilbao, Espagne)
Co-auteurs
Apala Majumdar
(U. of Bath, Royaume-Uni)
Bianca Stroffolini
(U. di Napoli Federico II, Italie)
Giandomenico Orlandi
(U. di Verona, Italie)
