Interplay of Active Stress and Driven Flow in Self-Assembled, Tumbling Active Nematics

Lyotropic chromonic liquid crystals (LCLCs) are a special type of hierarchical material in which self-assembled molecular aggregates are responsible for the formation of liquid crystal phases. Thanks to its unusual material properties and bio compatibility, it has found wide applications including the formation of active nematic liquid crystals. Recent experiments have uncovered tumbling character of certain LCLCs. However, how tumbling behavior modifies structure and flow in driven and active nematics is poorly understood. Here, we rely on continuum simulation to study the interplay of extensile active stress and externally driven flow in a flow-tumbling nematic with a low twist modulus to mimic nematic LCLCs. We find that a spontaneous transverse flow can be developed in a flow-tumbling active nematic confined to a hybrid alignment cell when it is in log-rolling mode at sufficiently high activities. The orientation of the total spontaneous flow is tunable by tuning the active stress. We further show that activity can suppress pressure-driven flow of a flow-tumbling nematic in a planar-anchoring cell but can also promote a transition of the director field under a pressure gradient in a homeotropic-anchoring cell. Remarkably, we demonstrate that the frequency of unsteady director dynamics in a tumbling nematic under Couette flow is invariant against active stress when below a threshold activity but exhibits a discontinuous increase when above the threshold at which a complex, periodic spatiotemporal director pattern emerges. Taken together, our simulations reveal qualitative differences between flow-tumbling and flow-aligning active nematics and suggest potential applications of tumbling nematics in microfluidics.

Liquid Crystals

This article discusses modern directions of research in liquid crystals (LCs). LCs represent one of the best studied classes of soft matter, along with colloids, polymer solutions and melts, gels, and foams. Phenomena observed in LCs and approaches developed for their description become of heuristic value in other branches of science. This article considers the basic properties of low-molecular weight thermotropic LCs, with an additional emphasis on the developments of the last decade, such as LC colloids. It begins with an overview of thermotropic and lyotropic systems, followed by a review of the concept of order parameter, elasticity, surface anchoring, and topological defects. It also evaluates hybrid systems combining LCs with polymers or colloids, along with new ways of creating mesomorphic systems and the dynamics of LCs, including anisotropic viscosity, director dynamics and the Frederiks transition, and flow induced by thermal expansion. Finally, it describes various applications of LCs.

A perturbative approach to the backflow dynamics of nematic defects

We present an asymptotic theory that includes in a perturbative expansion the coupling effects between the director dynamics and the velocity field in a nematic liquid crystal. Backflow effects are most significant in the presence of defect motion, since in this case the presence of a velocity field may strongly reduce the total energy dissipation and thus increase the defect velocity. As an example, we illustrate how backflow influences the speeds of opposite-charged defects.