Fluctuational Effects in the Dynamics of Liquid Crystals

Download or read book Fluctuational Effects in the Dynamics of Liquid Crystals written by E.I. Kats and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 191 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Liquid crystals, widely used in displays for electronic equipment and other applications, have highly unusual properties arising from the anisotropy of their molecules. It appears that some aspects of the fluid dynamics of liquid crystals, such as their viscosity, can be understood only by considering the role played by thermal fluctuations. In order to provide a theoretical framework for understanding the experimental results, the authors devote a large part of the book to a derivation of the nonlinear dynamic equations and to a discussion of linearized equations for the various types of liquid crystals. The diagrammatic and other techniques they use are of general use in condensed matter physics, and this exposition should thus be of interest to all condensed-matter theorists.