Elasticity Tensors in Nematic Liquid Crystals

Author(s): Amelia Carolina Sparavigna

The paper is discussing the contributions to the free energy of elastic distortions in a nematic liquid crystal. These contributions are here given by tensors, which are represented by means of the components of the director, the unit vector indicating the local average alignment of molecules, and by Kronecker and Levi-Civita symbols. The paper is also discussing the elasticity of the second order and its contribution in threshold phenomena.

Liquid Crystals, Nematics, Elasticity, Continuum Theories

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