title: Conformal smectics and their many metrics.
abstract: We establish that equally spaced smectic configurations enjoy an infinite-dimensional conformal symmetry and show that there is a natural map between them and null hypersurfaces in maximally symmetric spacetimes. By choosing the appropriate conformal factor it is possible to restore additional symmetries of focal structures only found before for smectics on flat substrates.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Complexity Science and Department of Physics, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Gareth P
authors.initials: GP
authors.lastname: Alexander
authors.forename: Randall D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Kamien
authors.forename: Ricardo A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Mosna