2018/10/25 by Tomer Markovich, Elsen Tjhung, Michael E. Cates · 1 citation
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Materials and Mechanics #Characterization and Applications of Magnetic Nanoparticles #Composite material #Condensed matter physics #Isotropy #Liquid crystal #Materials science #Mechanics #Micro and Nano Robotics #Optics #Phase transition #Physics #Polar #Rheology #Shear (geology) #Shear flow #Shear rate #Thermodynamics #cond-mat.soft #cond-mat.stat-mech #physics.bio-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.122.088004
published as Phys. Rev. Lett. 122, 088004 (2019) · 8 pages, 4 figures
arxiv created 2018/10/25 · openalex publication_date 2019/02/28 · arxiv updated 2019/03/06 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
The hydrodynamic theory of polar liquid crystals is widely used to describe biological active fluids as well as passive molecular materials. Depending on the "shear-alignment parameter", in passive or weakly active polar fluids under external shear, the polar order parameter p is either inclined to the flow at a fixed (Leslie) angle, or rotates continuously. Here, we study the role of an additional "shear-elongation parameter" that has been neglected in the recent literature and causes |p| to change under flow. We show that this effect can give rise to a shear-induced first-order phase transition from isotropic to polar, and significantly change the rheological properties of both active and passive polar fluids.