What a twist cell experiment tells about a quartic twist theory for chromonics

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Paparini, Silvia, Virga, Epifanio G.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2023
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866917596796813312
author Paparini, Silvia
Virga, Epifanio G.
author_facet Paparini, Silvia
Virga, Epifanio G.
contents The elastic theory of chromonic liquid crystals is not completely established. We know, for example, that for anomalously low twist constants (needed for chromonics) the classical Oseen-Frank theory may entail paradoxical consequences when applied to describe the equilibrium shapes of droplets surrounded by an isotropic phase: contrary to experimental evidence, they are predicted to dissolve in a plethora of unstable smaller droplets. We proposed a quartic twist theory that prevents such an instability from happening. Here, we apply this theory to the data of two experiments devised to measure the planar anchoring strength at the plates bounding a twist cell filled with a chromonic liquid crystal; these data had before been interpreted within the Oseen-Frank theory. We show that the quartic twist theory affords a better agreement with the experimental data, while delivering in one case a larger value for the anchoring strength.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2312_00149
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle What a twist cell experiment tells about a quartic twist theory for chromonics
Paparini, Silvia
Virga, Epifanio G.
Soft Condensed Matter
Mathematical Physics
The elastic theory of chromonic liquid crystals is not completely established. We know, for example, that for anomalously low twist constants (needed for chromonics) the classical Oseen-Frank theory may entail paradoxical consequences when applied to describe the equilibrium shapes of droplets surrounded by an isotropic phase: contrary to experimental evidence, they are predicted to dissolve in a plethora of unstable smaller droplets. We proposed a quartic twist theory that prevents such an instability from happening. Here, we apply this theory to the data of two experiments devised to measure the planar anchoring strength at the plates bounding a twist cell filled with a chromonic liquid crystal; these data had before been interpreted within the Oseen-Frank theory. We show that the quartic twist theory affords a better agreement with the experimental data, while delivering in one case a larger value for the anchoring strength.
title What a twist cell experiment tells about a quartic twist theory for chromonics
topic Soft Condensed Matter
Mathematical Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2312.00149