Computer simulation of interfaces in liquid crystalline systems

Michael Allen

University of Warwick, Department of Physics, Coventry, U.K.

Many of the interesting properties of liquid crystals are driven by the competition between bulk free energy terms, such as elasticity, and surface effects such as anchoring and surface tension. This talk will summarize recent progress in simulating the free interface between isotropic and nematic liquid crystal phases, and also modelling the behaviour of liquid crystals near solid surfaces, with applications to colloidal suspensions.

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