Using slow manifolds to model liquid crystals in Q-tensor theories

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• D'Alessandro, G (University of Southampton)
• Wednesday 17 April 2013, 12:00-13:00
• Seminar Room 1, Newton Institute.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Mustapha Amrani.

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The $Q$-tensor description of the nematic director field is very powerful as it can cope with defects and complicated geometries. On the other hand, it is also computationally very expensive because the equations for the tensor components are stiff: the contain time scales that differ by six to eight orders of magnitude.

In this talk I will discuss how we can use the stiffness of the director equations to our advantage: we can separate the two time scales, eliminate the fast one and reduce the dynamics of interest to a slow manifold, where the equations are no longer stiff. The ensuing approximate model is both accurate and fast.

Of course, there is a price to be paid: the approximation is valid only away from defects. I will conclude the talk discussing how we are attempting to overcome this restriction.

Co-author Keith Daly (University of Southampton)

This talk is part of the Isaac Newton Institute Seminar Series series.

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