Communications in Mathematical Sciences

Volume 15 (2017)

Number 1

The transmission of symmetry in liquid crystals

Pages: 185 – 195

DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.4310/CMS.2017.v15.n1.a8

Authors

Jie Xu (LMAM and School of Mathematical Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China)

Pingwen Zhang (LMAM and School of Mathematical Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China)

Abstract

In liquid crystals, the existing experiments and simulations suggest that for various types of molecules: no homogeneous phase is found breaking the molecular symmetry. It has been proved for rod-like molecules. We conjecture that it holds for two types of two-fold symmetries, and prove it for some molecules with these symmetries.

Keywords

liquid crystals, homogeneous phases, molecular symmetry, phase symmetry

2010 Mathematics Subject Classification

76A15, 82D30

Published 10 January 2017