Speaker
Peter Palffy-Muhoray
(Dept of Mathematical Sciences and Advanced Materials and Liquid Crystal Institute Kent State University)
Description
Assemblies of hard ellipsoidal particles form orientationally ordered phases with increasing number density. A simple self-consistent mean field model is proposed to study the transition from the isotropic to the nematic phase. The simplicity of the model gives ready access to the order parameter, free energy and pressure, in good agreement with simulations. The model may be useful to describe photomechanical stresses in liquid crystal elastomers due to photoisomerization.
Primary author
Peter Palffy-Muhoray
(Dept of Mathematical Sciences and Advanced Materials and Liquid Crystal Institute Kent State University)
Co-authors
Epifanio Virga
(Dipartimento di Matematica, Università di Pavia, Pavia, Italy)
Jamie Taylor
(Basque Center for Applied Mathematics (BCAM), Bilbao, Bizkaia, Spain)
Thomas Fai
(Department of Mathematics and Volen Center for Complex Systems, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA, USA)
Xiaoyu Zheng
(Department of Mathematical Sciences, Kent State University, Kent, OH, USA)
