A one-dimensional variational problem for cholesteric liquid crystals with disparate elastic constants

DOI10.1016/J.JDE.2021.03.045MaRDI QIDQ2020140zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Dmitry Golovaty, Michael Novack, Peter Sternberg

Publication date 23 April 2021

Published in Journal of Differential Equations (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/2008.04492

zbMATH Keywords

gamma-convergencelocal minimizercholesteric liquid crystal

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

PDEs in connection with fluid mechanics (35Q35) Liquid crystals (76A15) Second-order semilinear hyperbolic equations (35L71) Methods involving semicontinuity and convergence; relaxation (49J45) Variational principles of physics (49S05) Statistical mechanics of random media, disordered materials (including liquid crystals and spin glasses) (82D30) Variational methods applied to problems in fluid mechanics (76M30)

Abstract: We consider a one-dimensional variational problem arising in connection with a model for cholesteric liquid crystals. The principal feature of our study is the assumption that the twist deformation of the nematic director incurs much higher energy penalty than other modes of deformation. The appropriate ratio of the elastic constants then gives a small parameter $varepsilon$ entering an Allen-Cahn-type energy functional augmented by a twist term. We consider the behavior of the energy as $varepsilon$ tends to zero. We demonstrate existence of the local energy minimizers classified by their overall twist, find the $Gamma$-limit of the relaxed energies and show that it consists of the twist and jump terms. Further, we extend our results to include the situation when the cholesteric pitch vanishes along with $varepsilon$.

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Cites work

• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 3554969 (Why is no real title available?)
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 699712 (Why is no real title available?)
• A Ginzburg-Landau-type problem for highly anisotropic nematic liquid crystals
• Landau-De Gennes theory of nematic liquid crystals: the Oseen-Frank limit and beyond
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• Regularity of free boundaries in obstacle-type problems
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Cited in

(2)

• Chiral symmetry breaking and the soliton-stripe pattern in Langmuir monolayers and smectic films
• \(\Gamma\)-convergence of a mean-field model of a chiral doped nematic liquid crystal to the Oseen-Frank description of cholesterics

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• COMSOL

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