2018/06/28 by Peter Palffy‐Muhoray, Jamie M. Taylor, Palffy-Muhoray, Peter +5
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Liquid Crystal Research Advancements #Material Dynamics and Properties #Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft) #Theoretical and Computational Physics
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1806.10738
openalex publication_date 2018/06/28 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Both repulsive and attractive molecular interactions can be used to explain the onset of nematic order. The object of this paper is to combine these two nematogenic molecular interactions in a unified theory. This attempt is not unprecedented; what is perhaps new is the focus on the understanding of nematics in the high density limit. There, the orientational probability distribution is shown to exhibit a unique feature: it has compact support on configuration space. As attractive interactions are turned on, the behavior changes, and at a critical attractive interaction strength, thermotropic behavior of the Maier-Saupe type is attained.