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Updated: Aug 16, 2026

Orientational Transition in a Liquid Crystal Triggered by the Thermodynamic Growth of Interfacial Wetting Sheets
Published on: May 15, 2017
Backflow-induced asymmetric collapse of disclination lines in liquid crystals
Patrick Oswald1, Jordi Ignés-Mullol
1Laboratoire de Physique, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, 46 allée d'Italie, 69364 Lyon, Cedex 07, France. patrick.oswald@ens-lyon.fr
Abstract:
We present experiments where opposed pairs of planar parallel disclination lines of topological strength s=+/-1 move due to their mutual attraction. Our measurements show that their motion is clearly asymmetric, with +1 defects moving up to twice as fast as -1 ones. This is a clear indication of backflow, given the intrinsic isotropic elasticity of our system. A phenomenological model is able to account for the experimental observations by renormalizing the orientational diffusivity estimated from the velocity of each defect.
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