The Multi-Faceted Mathematical Challenges of Nematic Liquid Crystal Research - Some Examples and Applications
Time: 2022-11-09
Published By: Wenqiong Li
Speaker(s): Apala Majumdar (University of Strathclyde)
Time: 16:00-17:00 November 16, 2022
Venue: Online
Abstract: Nematic liquid crystals are classical examples of partially ordered materials that combine fluidity with the order of crystalline solids. We review the celebrated Landau-de Gennes theory for nematic liquid crystals and focus on the modelling of nematics confined to thin quasi-2D systems, with reference to 2D polygons. We perform asymptotic analysis in certain distinguished limits, encoded in terms of geometrical, material and temperature-dependent parameters, accompanied by exhaustive studies of solution landscapes of thin nematic systems. We study the effects of elastic anisotropy separately, discovering new solution branches relevant for highly anisotropic materials. In the last leg of the talk, we discuss recipes for building three-dimensional Landau-de Gennes equilibria from their two-dimensional counterparts, on three-dimensional prisms, and in doing so, we discover close connections between 2D solution landscapes and 3D landau-de Gennes equilibria.
This is joint work with Lei Zhang, Yucen Han, Baoming Shi and Joseph Harris.
Speaker: Professor Apala Majumdar is a world-leading expert in the mathematics and modelling of liquid crystals and their applications. She is Full Professor of Applied Mathematics at the University of Strathclyde. She received her PhD in applied mathematics from the University of Bristol in 2006, where she was also a CASE student with Hewlett Packard laboratories. She worked in Oxford as a research fellow, was appointed as a faculty member at the University of Bath in 2012 and moved to Strathclyde in 2019. Apala's research programme is strongly interdisciplinary and her scientific achievements and service to the community have been recognised by several national prizes - a London Mathematical Society Anne Bennett Prize in 2015, two prizes from the British Liquid Crystal Society in 2012 and 2020 respectively, an Academic Leader award from the FDM Everywoman in Technology awards and a Suffrage Science Award for inspirational women in STEM in 2020. Apala has worked extensively with researchers around the world - UK, Europe, Asia, North and South America, and has recently been appointed Associate Dean for International Research for the Faculty of Science at the University of Strathclyde. More details about her research and activities can be found at https://www.strath.ac.uk/staff/majumdarapalaprofessor/ and https://themajumdargroup.wordpress.com/.
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