Skip to main content
Log in

Defects of liquid crystals with variable degree of orientation

  • Published:
Calculus of Variations and Partial Differential Equations Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The defect set of minimizers of the modified Ericksen energy for nematic liquid crystals consists locally of a finite union of isolated points and Hölder continuous curves with finitely many crossings.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Almgren Jr., F.J.: \(Q\) valued functions minimizing Dirichlet’s integral and the regularity of area minimizing rectifiable currents up to codimension two. Bull. Am. Math. Soc. (N.S.) 8(2), 327–328 (1983)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  2. Alper, O.: Rectifiability of line defects in liquid crystals with variable degree of orientation. arXiv:1706.02734 (2017)

  3. Alper, O.: Uniqueness of planar tangent maps in the modified Ericksen model. arXiv:1706.04098 (2017)

  4. Ambrosio, L.: Existence of minimal energy configurations of nematic liquid crystals with variable degree of orientation. Manuscr. Math. 68(2), 215–228 (1990)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  5. Ambrosio, L.: Regularity of solutions of a degenerate elliptic variational problem. Manuscr. Math. 68(3), 309–326 (1990)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  6. Ambrosio, L., Virga, E.G.: A boundary value problem for nematic liquid crystals with a variable degree of orientation. Arch. Ration. Mech. Anal. 114(4), 335–347 (1991)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  7. Ball, J.M., Zarnescu, A.: Orientability and energy minimization in liquid crystal models. Arch. Ration. Mech. Anal. 202(2), 493–535 (2011)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  8. Brezis, H., Coron, J.-M., Lieb, E.H.: Harmonic maps with defects. Commun. Math. Phys. 107(4), 649–705 (1986)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  9. Canevari, G.: Line defects in the small elastic constant limit of a three-dimensional Landau-de Gennes model. Arch. Ration. Mech. Anal. 223(2), 591–676 (2017)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  10. de Lellis, C., Marchese, A., Spadaro, E., Valtorta, D.: Rectifiability and upper Minkowski bounds for singularities of harmonic q-valued maps. http://arxiv.org/abs/1612.01813 (2016)

  11. Ericksen, J.L.: Liquid crystals with variable degree of orientation. Arch. Ration. Mech. Anal. 113(2), 97–120 (1990)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  12. Giaquinta, M.: Multiple integrals in the calculus of variations and nonlinear elliptic systems. In: Annals of Mathematics Studies, vol. 105. Princeton University Press, Princeton (1983)

  13. Hardt, R., Kinderlehrer, D., Lin, F.-H.: Existence and partial regularity of static liquid crystal configurations. Commun. Math. Phys. 105(4), 547–570 (1986)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  14. Hardt, R., Kinderlehrer, D., Lin, F.-H.: Stable defects of minimizers of constrained variational principles. Ann. Inst. H. Poincaré Anal. Non Linéaire 5(4), 297–322 (1988)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  15. Hardt, R., Lin, F.-H.: Mappings minimizing the \(L^p\) norm of the gradient. Commun. Pure Appl. Math. 40(5), 555–588 (1987)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  16. Hardt, R., Lin, F.-H.: The singular set of an energy minimizing map from \(B^4\) to \(S^2\). Manuscr. Math. 69(3), 275–289 (1990)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  17. Hardt, R., Lin, F.-H.: Harmonic maps into round cones and singularities of nematic liquid crystals. Math. Z. 213(4), 575–593 (1993)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  18. Jost, J.: Lectures on harmonic maps (with applications to conformal mappings and minimal surfaces), Harmonic mappings and minimal immersions (Montecatini, 1984), Lecture Notes in Math., vol. 1161. Springer, Berlin, pp. 118–192 (1985)

  19. Lin, F.-H.: Nonlinear theory of defects in nematic liquid crystals; phase transition and flow phenomena. Commun. Pure Appl. Math. 42(6), 789–814 (1989)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  20. Lin, F.-H.: Nodal sets of solutions of elliptic and parabolic equations. Commun. Pure Appl. Math. 44(3), 287–308 (1991)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  21. Lin, F.-H.: On nematic liquid crystals with variable degree of orientation. Commun. Pure Appl. Math. 44(4), 453–468 (1991)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  22. Lin, F.-H., Poon, C.-C.: On Ericksen’s model for liquid crystals. J. Geom. Anal. 4(3), 379–392 (1994)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  23. Maddocks, J.H.: A model for disclinations in nematic liquid crystals. In: Theory and Applications of Liquid Crystals (Minneapolis, Minn., 1985), IMA Vol. Math. Appl., vol. 5. Springer, New York, pp. 255–269 (1987)

  24. Morrey Jr, C.B.: Multiple integrals in the calculus of variations. Die Grundlehren der mathematischen Wissenschaften, Band 130. Springer, New York (1966)

  25. Naber, A., Valtorta, D.: Rectifiable-Reifenberg and the regularity of stationary and minimizing harmonic maps. Ann. Math. (2) 185(1), 131–227 (2017)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  26. Reifenberg, E.R.: Solution of the plateau problem for \(m\)-dimensional surfaces of varying topological type. Acta Math. 104, 1–92 (1960)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  27. Schoen, R., Uhlenbeck, K.: A regularity theory for harmonic maps. J. Differ. Geom. 17(2), 307–335 (1982)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  28. Simon, L.: Asymptotics for a class of nonlinear evolution equations, with applications to geometric problems. Ann. Math. (2) 118(3), 525–571 (1983)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  29. Wang, C.: Energy minimizing maps to piecewise uniformly regular Lipschitz manifolds. Commun. Anal. Geom. 9(4), 657–682 (2001)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The first and third authors were in part supported by the National Science Foundation Grant DMS-1501000. The second author was in part supported by the National Science Foundation Grant DMS-1207702.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Onur Alper.

Additional information

Communicated by L. Ambrosio.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Alper, O., Hardt, R. & Lin, FH. Defects of liquid crystals with variable degree of orientation. Calc. Var. 56, 128 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00526-017-1218-5

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00526-017-1218-5

Mathematics Subject Classification

Navigation