BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//talks.cam.ac.uk//v3//EN
BEGIN:VTIMEZONE
TZID:Europe/London
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:+0000
TZOFFSETTO:+0100
TZNAME:BST
DTSTART:19700329T010000
RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=3;BYDAY=-1SU
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:+0100
TZOFFSETTO:+0000
TZNAME:GMT
DTSTART:19701025T020000
RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=10;BYDAY=-1SU
END:STANDARD
END:VTIMEZONE
BEGIN:VEVENT
CATEGORIES:Isaac Newton Institute Seminar Series
SUMMARY:Asymptotics of Landau-de Gennes theory - Jonathan
Robbins (University of Bristol)
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20190114T110000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20190114T114500
UID:TALK116860AThttp://talks.cam.ac.uk
URL:http://talks.cam.ac.uk/talk/index/116860
DESCRIPTION:We consider the Landau-de Gennes model for nematic
liquid crystals in a two-dimensional domain subje
ct to integer-degree boundary conditions\, consist
ent with the absence of defects\, in the physicall
y relevant regime of weak elasticity. At leading o
rder\, the minimum-energy configuration is describ
ed by the simpler Oseen-Frank theory. We obtain th
e next-order corrections using a Gamma-convergence
approach. These turn out to be determined by an a
lgebraic rather than a differential equation. The
most important qualitative feature is the appearan
ce of biaxiality\, with strength and orientation d
etermined by the gradient of the Frank director. T
he results are applied to the variational problem
in which only the degree of the boundary condition
s is fixed. In contrast to an analogous and well-k
nown problem in the Ginzburg-Landau model of vorti
ces\, it is found that the energy is only partiall
y degenerate at leading order\, with a family of c
onformal boundary conditions\, parameterised by th
e positions of escape points (the analogues of vor
tices)\, achieving the minimum possible energy. Th
is partial degeneracy is lifted at the next order.
This is joint work with G di Fratta\, V
Slastikov and A Zarnescu.
LOCATION:Seminar Room 1\, Newton Institute
CONTACT:INI IT
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR