2003/11/30 by Olaf Stenull, T. C. Lubensky
Engineering · Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Materials and Mechanics #Advanced Sensor and Energy Harvesting Materials #Liquid Crystal Research Advancements #cond-mat.soft
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physreve.69.051801
published as Phys. Rev. E 69, 051801 (2004) · 13 pages, 2 figures, version to appear in Phys. Rev. E
arxiv created 2004/02/14 · openalex publication_date 2004/05/11 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
We study the low-frequency, long-wavelength dynamics of soft and semisoft nematic elastomers using two different but related dynamic theories. Our first formulation describes the pure hydrodynamic behavior of nematic elastomers in which the nematic director has relaxed to its equilibrium value in the presence of strain. We find that the sound-mode structure for soft elastomers is identical to that of columnar liquid crystals. Our second formulation generalizes the derivation of the equations of nematohydrodynamics by Forster et al. to nematic elastomers. It treats the director explicitly and describes slow modes beyond the hydrodynamic limit.