Arghir Zarnescu

Landau-de Gennes theory of nematic liquid crystals: the Oseen-Frank limit and beyond

We study global minimizers of a continuum Landau–De Gennes energy functional for nematic liquid crystals, in three-dimensional domains, subject to uniaxial boundary conditions. We analyze the physically relevant limit of small elastic constant and show that global minimizers converge strongly, in W1,2, to a global minimizer predicted by the Oseen–Frank theory for uniaxial nematic liquid crystals with constant order parameter. Moreover, the convergence is uniform in the interior of the domain, away from the singularities of the limiting Oseen–Frank global minimizer. We obtain results on the rate of convergence of the eigenvalues and the regularity of the eigenvectors of the Landau–De Gennes global minimizer. We also study the interplay between biaxiality and uniaxiality in Landau–De Gennes global energy minimizers and obtain estimates for various related quantities such as the biaxiality parameter and the size of admissible strongly biaxial regions.

Orientability and Energy Minimization in Liquid Crystal Models

Uniaxial nematic liquid crystals are modelled in the Oseen–Frank theory through a unit vector field n. This theory has the apparent drawback that it does not respect the head-to-tail symmetry in which n should be equivalent to −n. This symmetry is preserved in the constrained Landau–de Gennes theory that works with the tensor

Energy Dissipation and Regularity for a Coupled Navier–Stokes and Q-Tensor System

{Q=s \left(n\otimes n-\frac{1}{3} Id\right)}

On the Asymptotic Stability of Bound States in 2D Cubic Schrödinger Equation

. We study the differences and the overlaps between the two theories. These depend on the regularity class used as well as on the topology of the underlying domain. We show that for simply-connected domains and in the natural energy class W1,2 the two theories coincide, but otherwise there can be differences between the two theories, which we identify. In the case of planar domains with holes and various boundary conditions, for the simplest form of the energy functional, we completely characterise the instances in which the predictions of the constrained Landau–de Gennes theory differ from those of the Oseen–Frank theory.

Stability of the Melting Hedgehog in the Landau–de Gennes Theory of Nematic Liquid Crystals

We consider systems of particles coupled with fluids. The particles are described by the evolution of their density, and the fluid is described by the Navier-Stokes equations. The particles add stress to the fluid and the fluid carries and deforms the particles. Because the particles perform rapid random motion, we assume that the density of particles is carried by a time average of the fluid velocity. The resulting coupled system is shown to have smooth solutions at all values of parameters, in two spatial dimensions.

Half-Integer Point Defects in the Q-Tensor Theory of Nematic Liquid Crystals

We study a complex non-Newtonian fluid that models the flowof nematic liquid crystals. The fluid is described by a system that couples a forced Navier–Stokes system with a parabolic-type system. We prove the existence of global weak solutions in dimensions two and three.We show the existence of a Lyapunov functional for the smooth solutions of the coupled system and use cancellations that allow its existence to prove higher global regularity in dimension two. We also show the weak–strong uniqueness in dimension two.

Orientable and Non-Orientable Line Field Models for Uniaxial Nematic Liquid Crystals

In this paper we study the full system of incompressible liquid crystals, as modeled in the Q-tensor framework. Under certain conditions we prove the global existence of weak solutions in dimension two or three and the existence of global regular solutions in dimension two. We also prove the weak-strong uniqueness of the solutions, for sufficiently regular initial data.

Dynamic cubic instability in a 2D Q-tensor model for liquid crystals

We consider the cubic nonlinear Schrödinger equation in two space dimensions with an attractive potential. We study the asymptotic stability of the nonlinear bound states, i.e. periodic in time localized in space solutions. Our result shows that all solutions with small, localized in space initial data, converge to the set of bound states. Therefore, the center manifold in this problem is a global attractor. The proof hinges on dispersive estimates that we obtain for the non-autonomous, non-Hamiltonian, linearized dynamics around the bound states.