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Main Authors: Xu, Jie, Yao, Xiaomei
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.00659
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author Xu, Jie
Yao, Xiaomei
author_facet Xu, Jie
Yao, Xiaomei
contents A gradient flow for the concentration and a $2\times 2$ tensor is constructed to describe smectic liquid crystals. The free energy consists of the entropy term and interaction term involving squared second order spatial derivatives. The entropy term incorporates the concentration in the quasi-entropy originally proposed for the tensor only, which is a strictly convex and lower semicontinuous function imposing coupled constraints between the concentration and the tensor. An evolution equation for the boundary normal derivative of the concentration is proposed in addition to the equations for the concentration and the tensor, giving an energy dissipation system. Numerical schemes are designed with emphases on using the entropy term to keep the coupled constraints, and the discretization of the boundary normal derivatives satisfying summation by parts. Existence, uniqueness, energy dissipation and error estimates are established. Numerical results indicate the efficiency and robustness of the scheme. Configurations of defects different from other layer structures are observed.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2606_00659
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Tensor gradient flow with quasi-entropy for smectic liquid crystals and discretizations keeping coupled physical constraints
Xu, Jie
Yao, Xiaomei
Numerical Analysis
Soft Condensed Matter
Computational Physics
65M12, 65M15, 76A15, 82D30, 65Z05
A gradient flow for the concentration and a $2\times 2$ tensor is constructed to describe smectic liquid crystals. The free energy consists of the entropy term and interaction term involving squared second order spatial derivatives. The entropy term incorporates the concentration in the quasi-entropy originally proposed for the tensor only, which is a strictly convex and lower semicontinuous function imposing coupled constraints between the concentration and the tensor. An evolution equation for the boundary normal derivative of the concentration is proposed in addition to the equations for the concentration and the tensor, giving an energy dissipation system. Numerical schemes are designed with emphases on using the entropy term to keep the coupled constraints, and the discretization of the boundary normal derivatives satisfying summation by parts. Existence, uniqueness, energy dissipation and error estimates are established. Numerical results indicate the efficiency and robustness of the scheme. Configurations of defects different from other layer structures are observed.
title Tensor gradient flow with quasi-entropy for smectic liquid crystals and discretizations keeping coupled physical constraints
topic Numerical Analysis
Soft Condensed Matter
Computational Physics
65M12, 65M15, 76A15, 82D30, 65Z05
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.00659