Refined approximation for a class of Landau-de Gennes energy minimizers

2010/06/29 by Luc Nguyen, Arghir Zarnescu · 2 citations
Mathematics · #math.AP

paper · pdf · doi:10.1007/s00526-012-0522-3

published as Calc. Var. PDEs 47 (2013), no. 1-2, 383-432

arxiv created 2010/06/29 · arxiv updated 2014/10/14

Abstract

We study a class of Landau-de Gennes energy functionals in the asymptotic regime of small elastic constant L>0. We revisit and sharpen the results in [18] on the convergence to the limit Oseen-Frank functional. We examine how the Landau-de Gennes global minimizers are approximated by the Oseen-Frank ones by determining the first order term in their asymptotic expansion as L→ 0. We identify the appropriate functional setting in which the asymptotic expansion holds, the sharp rate of convergence to the limit and determine the equation for the first order term. We find that the equation has a ``normal component'' given by an algebraic relation and a ``tangential component'' given by a linear system.

Cited by

• On the absence of point defects in biaxial Landau--de Gennes models
• Maximum bound principle for Q-tensor gradient flow with low regularity integrators