University of Pavia

In the mathematical theory of liquid crystals, a hedgehog is a universal equilibrium solution for Frank's elastic free-energy functional. It is characterized by a radial defect for the nematic director, reminiscent of the way spines are arranged in the spiny mammal. For certain choices of Frank's elastic constants, the free energy stored in a ball subject to radial boundary conditions for the director is minimized by a hedgehog with its defect in the centre of the ball. For other choices of Frank's constants, it is known that a radial hedgehog cannot be a minimizer for this variational problem. We shall gather evidence supporting the conjecture that a "twisted" hedgehog takes the place of a radial hedgehog as an energy minimizer (and we shall not fail to say in which sense it is "twisted"). We shall also show that a twisted hedgehog often accompanies, unseen, a radial hedgehog, as its virtual double, ready to beat its energy as a certain elastic anisotropy is reached.

In Soft Matter, octupolar order is not just an exotic mathematical curio. Liquid crystals have already provided a noticeable case of soft ordered materials for which a (second-rank) quadrupolar order tensor may not suffice to capture the complexity of the condensed phases they can exhibit. This lecture will discuss the properties of a third-rank order tensor capable of describing these more complex phases. In particular, it will be shown that octupolar order tensors come in two separate, equally abundant variants. This fact, which will be given a simple geometric interpretation, anticipates the possible existence of two distinct octupolar sub-phases. 

A new nematic phase has recently been discovered and characterized experimentally. It embodies a theoretical prediction made by Robert B. Meyer in 1973 on the basis of mere symmetry considerations to the effect that a nematic phase might also exist which in its ground state would acquire a 'heliconical' configuration, similar to the chiral molecular arrangement of cholesterics, but with the nematic director precessing around a cone about the optic axis. Experiments with newly synthetized materials have shown chiral heliconical equilibrium structures with characteristic pitch in the range of 1o nanometres and cone semi-amplitude of about 20 degrees. In 2001, Ivan Dozov proposed an elastic theory for such (then still speculative) phase which features a negative bend elastic constant along with a quartic correction to the nematic energy density that makes it positive definite. This lecture will present some thoughts about the possibility of describing the elastic response of twist-bend nematics within a purely quadratic gradient theory.