LIQUID CRYSTALS: WHAT THEY ARE AND WHY YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THEM

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• Tom Lubensky, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania
• Wednesday 02 June 2010, 16:00-17:00
• Pippard Lecture Theatre, Cavendish Laboratory.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Leona Hope-Coles.

Liquid crystals are materials that have properties, like the ability to flow, normally associated with fluids and others, like optical birefringence, normally associated with crystalline solids. They have symmetries that fill the gap between the full rotational and translational invariance of homogeneous and isotropic fluids and the periodic structure of crystals. This talk will review the menagerie of liquid crystalline phases. It will then discuss, using examples from liquid crystals, those properties of any condensed system – long-wave-length elasticity, hydrodynamics, and topological defect structure - that can be determined from symmetry alone.

This talk is part of the Cavendish Physical Society series.

This talk is included in these lists:

• All Cavendish Laboratory Seminars
• All Talks (aka the CURE list)
• Cavendish Physical Society
• Centre for Health Leadership and Enterprise
• Cosmology, Astrophysics and General Relativity
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• Hanchen DaDaDash
• Inference Group Summary
• ME Seminar
• NanoDTC Energy Materials Talks
• NanoDTC Talks
• Neurons, Fake News, DNA and your iPhone: The Mathematics of Information
• Pippard Lecture Theatre, Cavendish Laboratory
• School of Physical Sciences
• Thin Film Magnetic Talks

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