title: Excitability in liquid crystal.
abstract: The spiral waves observed in a liquid crystal submitted to a vertical electric field and a horizontal rotating magnetic field are explained in the framework of a purely mechanical description of the liquid crystal. The originality of the experiment described in this paper is the presence of the vertical electric field which allows us to analyze the spiral waves in the framework of a weakly nonlinear theory.
authors.affiliation: Institut Non Lineaire de Nice, U.M.R. 129 C.N.R.S. Universite de Nice Sophia-Antipolis 1361, Rte des Lucioles 06560 Valbonne, France.
authors.forename: P.
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Coullet
authors.forename: T.
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Frisch
authors.forename: J. M.
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Gilli
authors.forename: S.
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rica