Speaker
Description
Nematic films are thin fluid structures, ideally two dimensional, endowed with an in-plane degenerate nematic order.
Some variational models for nematic films have been introduced by Giomi in 2012 and by Napoli and Vergori in 2018. At equilibrium, the shape of the nematic film results from the competition between surface tension, which favors the minimization of the area, and the nematic elasticity, which instead promotes the alignment of the molecules along a common direction. The main difference between the two mentioned approaches is the way to compute the surface derivative of the nematic vector field. In this seminar I will briefly describe the physical models and I will present a complete variational analysis of the model proposed by Giomi for revolution surfaces spanning two coaxial rings. Time permitting, I will present the case of superficial gradient introduced by Napoli and Vergori in a specific geometrical setting.
Joint work with Chiara Lonati (POLITO), Luca Lussardi (POLITO) and Alfredo Marzocchi (UNICATT).
