Fall 2015

Seminars are held on Mondays from 2:30 - 3:30PM in Cullimore Hall, Room 611, unless noted otherwise. For questions about the seminar schedule, please contact David Shirokoff.


Date: November 9, 2015

Speaker: Ross Lund
Department of Mathematical Sciences,
New Jersey Institute of Technology

Title: "Phase Transitions in Biaxial Nematic Liquid Crystals"

Abstract:

We study a variational theory for biaxial nematics based on the Onsager free energy functional. We characterize the phase diagram of a biaxial nematic by considering three separate regimes: the weakly-biaxial interaction regime, the low-temperature (strong interaction) regime, and the near-isotropic regime. The global phase diagram is then inferred from these three analyses.