Peter Palffy-Muhoray - The physics of liquid crystals

This talk was part of the Workshop “New Trends in the Variational Modeling and Simulation of Liquid Crystals” held December 2 - 6, 2019 at the ESI.

Liquid crystals are a vast and diverse class of materials which exhibits properties between those of isotropic liquids and those of crystalline solids: Liquid crystals may flow like a liquid, but their constituent molecules retain orientational order like solids. The main macroscopic manifestation of this dual nature is the emergence of defects, which underly spectacular phenomena and new prospective technologies, e.g., knotted disinclination lines, bistable displays, control of nanoparticle suspensions.

The workshop aims to bring together researchers working on various aspects of liquid crystals, with topics spanning from the physical modeling and numerical simulations of liquid crystalline systems to rigorous analysis of major liquid crystal phenomena.