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Updated: Jul 24, 2025

Forming, Confining, and Observing Microtubule-Based Active Nematics
Published on: January 13, 2023
Coupling of nematic in-plane orientational ordering and equilibrium shapes of closed flexible nematic shells
Luka Mesarec1, Wojciech Góźdź2, Veronika Kralj-Iglič3
1Laboratory of Physics, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University of Ljubljana, Tržaška Cesta 25, 1000, Ljubljana, Slovenia. luka.mesarec@fe.uni-lj.si.
Abstract:
The impact of the intrinsic curvature of in-plane orientationally ordered curved flexible nematic molecules attached to closed 3D flexible shells was studied numerically. A Helfrich-Landau-de Gennes-type mesoscopic approach was adopted where the flexible shell's curvature field and in-plane nematic field are coupled and concomitantly determined in the process of free energy minimisation. We demonstrate that this coupling has the potential to generate a rich diversity of qualitatively new shapes of closed 3D nematic shells and the corresponding specific in-plane orientational ordering textures, which strongly depend on the shell's volume-to-surface area ratio, so far not predicted in mesoscopic-type numerical studies of 3D shapes of closed flexible nematic shells.
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