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On nematic liquid crystals with variable degree of orientation
Author(s) -
Lin Fang Hua
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
communications on pure and applied mathematics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.12
H-Index - 115
eISSN - 1097-0312
pISSN - 0010-3640
DOI - 10.1002/cpa.3160440404
Subject(s) - liquid crystal , degenerate energy levels , uniqueness , orientation (vector space) , mathematics , degree (music) , variable (mathematics) , energy (signal processing) , mathematical analysis , geometry , condensed matter physics , physics , quantum mechanics , statistics , acoustics
Abstract Energy minimizing static configurations of nematic liquid crystals with variable degree of orientation can be described by a map which minimizes certain degenerate variational integrals. This mathematical model was recently posed by J. L. Erickson. In this paper, we shall prove the existence, local uniqueness, and global regularity of minimizers. We shall also estimate the size of possible defects.