Equilibrium order parameters of liquid crystals in the Landau-De Gennes theory

Apala Majumdar

Published 2008-08-13, updated 2009-07-01Version 2

We study nematic liquid crystal configurations in confined geometries within the continuum Landau--De Gennes theory. These nematic configurations are mathematically described by symmetric, traceless two-tensor fields, known as $\Qvec$-tensor order parameter fields. We obtain explicit upper bounds for the order parameters of equilibrium liquid crystal configurations in terms of the temperature, material constants, boundary conditions and the domain geometry. These bounds are compared with the bounds predicted by the statistical mechanics definition of the $\Qvec$-tensor order parameter. They give quantitative information about the temperature regimes for which the Landau-De Gennes definition and the statistical mechanics definition of the $\Qvec$-tensor order parameter agree and the temperature regimes for which the two definitions fail to agree. For the temperature regimes where the two definitions do not agree, we discuss possible alternatives.