title: Nematic order in small systems: measuring the elastic and wall-anchoring constants in vibrofluidized granular rods.
abstract: We investigate nematic order in vibrated granular rods confined to a small quasi-2D container less than 10 rod lengths in diameter. As rod density ρ increases, patterning shifts from bipolar to uniform alignment. We find that a continuum liquid crystal free energy functional captures key patterning features down to almost the particle size. By fitting theory to experiments, we estimate the relative values of bend and splay elastic constants and wall anchoring. We find that splay is softer than bend for all ρ and rod lengths tested, while the ratio of the average elastic constant to wall anchoring increases with ρ.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Chemistry and The Fritz Haber Center, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem, 91904, Israel.
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Galanis
authors.forename: Ralph
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Nossal
authors.forename: Wolfgang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Losert
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Harries
mesh_terms: D004548:Elasticity; D050866:Liquid Crystals / Q000737:chemistry*; D044367:Phase Transition; D014732:Vibration