Seminar series
Date
Thu, 28 Jan 2010
Time
12:30 -
13:30
Location
Gibson 1st Floor SR
Speaker
François Genoud
Organisation
OxPDE, University of Oxford
I will present in detail the celebrated theories of Onsager (1949) and Maier-Saupe (1958) explaining the phenomenon of long-range orientational order in nematic liquid crystals. The models are not rigorous from the mathematical viewpoint and my talk will stay at the formal level. If time permits, I will suggest directions towards a rigorous mean-field theory.