title: Elliptic phases: a study of the nonlinear elasticity of twist-grain boundaries.
abstract: We develop an explicit and tractable representation of a twist-grain-boundary phase of a smectic-A liquid crystal. This allows us to calculate the interaction energy between grain boundaries and the relative contributions from the bending and compression deformations. We discuss the special stability of the pi/2 grain boundaries and discuss the relation of this structure to the Schwarz D surface.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-6396, USA.
authors.forename: Christian D
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Santangelo
authors.forename: Randall D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Kamien
mesh_terms: D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D004548:Elasticity; D050866:Liquid Crystals / Q000737:chemistry*; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D017711:Nonlinear Dynamics; D044367:Phase Transition