title: Universal mean-field phase diagram for biaxial nematics obtained from a minimax principle.
abstract: We study a class of quadratic Hamiltonians which describe both fully attractive and partly repulsive molecular interactions, characteristic of biaxial liquid crystal molecules. To treat the partly repulsive interactions we establish a minimax principle for the associated mean-field free energy. We show that the phase diagram described by Sonnet [Phys. Rev. E 67, 061701 (2003)] is universal. Our predictions are in good agreement with the recent observations on both V-shaped and tetrapodal molecules.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Matematica and CNISM, Università di Pavia, Via Ferrata 1, 27100 Pavia, Italy.
authors.forename: Fulvio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Bisi
authors.forename: Epifanio G
authors.initials: EG
authors.lastname: Virga
authors.forename: Eugene C
authors.initials: EC
authors.lastname: Gartland
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: De Matteis
authors.forename: André M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Sonnet
authors.forename: Georges E
authors.initials: GE
authors.lastname: Durand