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Nematic tactoid population.

Silvia Paparini1, Epifanio G Virga1

  • 1Dipartimento di Matematica, Università di Pavia, Via Ferrata 5, 27100 Pavia, Italy.

Physical Review. E
|March 19, 2021
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

This study investigates the optimal shapes of nematic liquid crystal tactoids in isotropic fluids. Tactoids, spindle-like droplets, are found to prevail under specific conditions related to their volume and material properties.

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Area of Science:

  • Materials Science
  • Soft Matter Physics
  • Liquid Crystal Physics

Background:

  • Tactoids are spindle-like droplets of nematic liquid crystals observed in various systems.
  • Determining the optimal shape of these droplets is a complex variational problem.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the prevalence of different equilibrium shapes for bipolar nematic droplets.
  • To analyze how shape prevalence is influenced by droplet volume and material constants.

Main Methods:

  • Consideration of a specific class of admissible solutions for bipolar droplets.
  • Analysis of shape prevalence based on a dimensionless volume measure (α) and ratios of elastic constants (k24, k3).

Main Results:

  • Tactoids, a specific droplet shape, are shown to prevail under certain conditions.
  • The prevalence of tactoids is quantified by the inequality α⪅16.2+0.3k3-(14.9-0.1k3)k24.
  • A distinct role for the saddle-splay constant (K24) in determining droplet shape was revealed.

Conclusions:

  • The study provides insights into the factors governing the equilibrium shapes of nematic tactoids.
  • The findings offer a new perspective on the influence of elastic constants, particularly K24, on droplet morphology.