Approach and rotation of reconnecting topological defect lines in liquid crystal
arxiv(2024)
摘要
Topological defects are a universal concept across many disciplines, such as
crystallography, liquid-crystalline physics, low-temperature physics,
cosmology, and even biology. In nematic liquid crystals, topological defects
called disclinations have been widely studied. For their three-dimensional (3D)
dynamics, however, only recently have theoretical approaches dealing with fully
3D configurations been reported. Further, recent experiments have observed 3D
disclination line reconnections, a phenomenon characteristic of defect line
dynamics, but detailed discussions were limited to the case of approximately
parallel defects. In this study, we focus on the case of two disclination lines
that approach at finite angles and lie in separate planes, a more fundamentally
3D reconnection configuration. Observation and analysis showed the square-root
law of the distance between disclinations and the decrease of the
inter-disclination angle over time. We compare the experimental results with
theory and find qualitative agreement on the scaling of distance and angle with
time, but quantitative disagreement on distance and angle relative mobilities.
To probe this disagreement, we derive the equations of motion for systems with
reduced twist constant and also carry out simulations for this case. These,
together with the experimental results, suggest that deformations of
disclinations may be responsible for the disagreement.
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