Hydrodynamics of pair-annihilating disclinations in SmC films.
The pair annihilation of smectic c-director defects with winding numbers +/-1 in a freestanding SmC film as a representative of the XY model is studied numerically, considering a full coupling of orientational degrees of freedom and hydrodynamics. A reduction of the annihilation time compared to the nonhydrodynamic treatment is observed. It is demonstrated that the +1 disclination moves considerably faster than the -1 one primarily due to hydrodynamic flow, weakly assisted also by elastic anisotropy. The stress tensor terms and material parameters relevant for this effect are identified.
Department of Physics, University of Ljubljana, Jadranska 19, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia. daniel@fiz.uni-lj.si
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