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CATEGORIES:Isaac Newton Institute Seminar Series
SUMMARY:Interfaces with singularities: understanding phase
  transitions in nematic liquid crystals - Dmitry G
 olovaty (University of Akron)
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20190118T094500
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20190118T103000
UID:TALK117121AThttp://talks.cam.ac.uk
URL:http://talks.cam.ac.uk/talk/index/117121
DESCRIPTION:Experimental data indicates that the nematic-to-is
 otropic phase transition in liquid crystals may pr
 oceed via evolution of interfaces that are not smo
 oth.  In this talk\, our goal is to provide a poss
 ible explanation for the observed singularities of
  the phase boundaries. <br> <br> In order to devel
 op an initial understanding of transitions between
  the ordered and disordered states\, we formulate 
 a simple toy model based on the modified Ginzburg-
 Landau-type energy defined over vector fields on t
 he plane. The corresponding variational model cons
 ists of anisotropic gradient terms and a potential
  that vanishes on two disconnected sets.  <br> <br
 > The principal observation from the study of the 
 simplified model is that the phase boundary singul
 arities can be explained by large disparity betwee
 n the elastic constants in the gradient contributi
 on to the energy. In the talk we will present a co
 mbination of rigorous analysis and numerics that l
 eads to this conclusion. This is a joint work with
  Michael Novack\, Peter Sternberg\, and Raghavendr
 a Venkatraman.
LOCATION:Seminar Room 1\, Newton Institute
CONTACT:INI IT
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