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Full-Text Articles in Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics
The Interaction Of Topological Defects In Anisotropically-Elastic Nematic Liquid Crystals, Carter J. Swift
The Interaction Of Topological Defects In Anisotropically-Elastic Nematic Liquid Crystals, Carter J. Swift
Macalester Journal of Physics and Astronomy
Topological defects are very well understood so long as the medium in which they exist is isotropically-elastic. They lead to director fields which are easy to calculate and superpose linearly so that a system with any number of defects is analytically treatable. They also have an interaction which is simple in form and can be accurately described by the Peach-Koehler force. In an anisotropically-elastic medium, however, such defects are very poorly understood outside of the single-defect case which was solved by Dzyaloshinskii. In this project, numerical and approximate analytical techniques are applied in order to better understand the interaction between …