Twist disclination loops in chiral smectic C liquid crystals

The notion of an infinitesimal twist disclination loop known from solids is introduced into a chiral smectic C liquid crystal with parallel layers. Finite rectangular and straight twist disclinations are described as a synthesis of a planar distribution of infinitesimal loops. Then a small impurity which disturbs only the molecular arrangement in one smectic layer is modelled by a pair of infinitesimal twist disclination loops. The interaction between a 2π-twist disclination and a small impurity is estimated using the interaction energy between a straight 2π-twist disclination and an infinitesimal twist disclination loop.     

Specific features of low-temperature phonon scattering in materials with tilted disclination loops

Phonon scattering by static stress fields of circular wedge disclination loops is investigated in the framework of the deformation potential approach. Numerical calculations of the mean free path l and thermal conductivity κ demonstrate that the temperature dependence of κ exhibits a minimum at a certain temperature T* in the low-temperature range. The thermal conductivity κ sharply increases as T ^?3 with a decrease in temperature (T<T*) and exhibits a dislocation behavior (κ ～ T ²) with an increase in temperature (T>T*). The results obtained for the wedge disclination loop are compared with the available data for uniaxial disclination dipoles. It is shown that the properties of uniaxial disclination dipoles serving as sources of phonon scattering are similar to those of wedge disclination loops.     

The solution of a wedge disclination dipole interacting with an annular inclusion and the force acting on the disclination dipole

The interaction between a wedge disclination dipole and an elastic annular inclusion is investigated. Utilizing the Muskhelishvili complex variable method, the explicit series form solutions of the complex potentials in the matrix and the inclusion region are derived. The image force acting on the disclination dipole centre is also calculated. The influence of the location of the disclination dipole and the thickness of the annular inclusion as well as the elastic dissimilarity of materials upon the equilibrium position of the disclination dipole is discussed in detail. The results show that a stable equilibrium point of the disclination dipole near the inclusion is found for certain combinations of material constant. Moreover, the force on the disclination dipole is strongly affected by the position of the disclination dipole and the thickness of annular inclusion. The repulsion force increases （or the attraction force reduces） with the increase of the thickness of the annular inclusion. An appropriate critical value of the thickness of the annular inclusion may be found to change the direction of the force on the disclination dipole. The present solutions include previous results as special eases.     

Misfit disclination dipoles in nanocrystalline films and coatings

A theoretical model is proposed for describing the special physical micromechanism of misfit stress relaxation in nanocrystalline (NC) films and coatings. According to this model, under certain conditions, grain boundary sliding occurs in NC films and coatings, which is accompanied by the formation of an ensemble of disclination dipoles (rotational defects). These dipoles produce elastic stress fields, which partially compensate misfit stresses in NC films and coatings. Using the proposed model, it is shown that the nucleation of disclination dipoles in a film (coating) can significantly decrease the total energy of the film/substrate composite for the AlN/6H-SiC and GaN/6H-SiC systems over a wide range of structural parameter values.     

Dual model for dislocation and disclination melting

We show that defect melting involving dislocations and disclinations is dually equivalent to an extension of an XY model with an energy of the type Σ_{i, j}{[cos(?_iu_j + ?_ju_i) + ? cos ?_iω_j] }, where $\text{ω}{}_{\mathrm{t}}\text{=}\text{1}\text{2}\text{?}{}_{\mathrm{tjk}}\text{?}{}_{\mathrm{j}}\text{u}{}_{\mathrm{k}}$ is the local rotation field. The. model clarifies the proper choice of defect core energies arising from nonlinear elasticity. These permit the pile-up of dislocations to disclinations which is essential for the first order of the melting transition.     

An alternate smearing method for Wilson loops in lattice QCD

We have constructed the bag model having a central constant color field. The motion of the quark is studied in this bag and the Dirac equation is solved for it. The energy spectrum found has a branching due to the interaction of the quarks with the color background. It is pointed out that this model can be applied for taking into account, in the mass spectrum of the hadrons, the coupling of the constituent quarks with the gluon condensation as the interaction with the color background.Received: 7 December 2003, Revised: 18 January 2004, Published online: 3 March 2004Sh. Mamedov: shahin@theory.ipm.ac.ir     

Generation of disclination dipoles and nanoscopic cracks in deformed nanoceramic materials

The processes of generation of disclination dipoles and nanoscopic cracks (nanocracks) in deformed nanoceramic materials are investigated theoretically. It is demonstrated that disclination dipoles are formed at grain boundaries in the course of grain-boundary sliding. The geometric features of the generation of disclination dipoles are analyzed. The conditions under which the nucleation of nanocracks in the vicinity of the disclination dipoles is energetically favorable are calculated for the nanoceramic materials α-Al₂O₃ (corundum) and 3C-SiC (the cubic phase of silicon carbide). The equilibrium lengths of these nanocracks are also calculated. It is shown that the equilibrium lengths of nanocracks can be comparable to the grain size. As a consequence, these nanocracks can coalesce, thus eventually resulting in the brittle fracture of nanoceramic materials.     

Molecular simulation and theory of a liquid crystalline disclination core

Molecular simulations of a nematic liquid crystal confined in cylinder geometry with homeotropic anchoring have been carried out. The core structure of a disclination line defect of strength +1 has been examined, and comparison made with various theoretical treatments, which are presented in a unified way. It is found that excellent fits to the cylindrically symmetrized order tensor profiles may be obtained with appropriate parameter choices; notwithstanding this, on the time scales of the simulation, the cylindrical symmetry of the core is broken and two defects of strength +1 / 2 may be resolved.     

Backflow-induced asymmetric collapse of disclination lines in liquid crystals

We present experiments where opposed pairs of planar parallel disclination lines of topological strength s=+/-1 move due to their mutual attraction. Our measurements show that their motion is clearly asymmetric, with +1 defects moving up to twice as fast as -1 ones. This is a clear indication of backflow, given the intrinsic isotropic elasticity of our system. A phenomenological model is able to account for the experimental observations by renormalizing the orientational diffusivity estimated from the velocity of each defect.     

Topological quantization of disclination points in three—dimensional liquid crystals

Using the φ-mapping method and topological current theory, we study the inner structure of disclination points in three-dimensional liquid crystals. By introducing the strength density and the topological current of many disclination points, it is pointed out that the disclination points are determined by the singularities of the general director field and they are topologically quantized by the Hopf indices and Brouwer degrees.     

Spin disclination in a layered antiferromagnet with a screw dislocation

A screw dislocation perpendicular to layers in layered antiferromagnets with a ferromagnetic exchange interaction of spins in the atomic planes and an antiferromagnetic interaction between planes gives rise to nonsingular disclinations with a ferromagnetic core.     

A disclination model for twinning and de-twinning of nanotwinned copper

The twinning and de-twinning processes within grains of nanotwinned copper (nt-Cu) are schematically demonstrated using the concept of wedge disclination quadrupoles. The stable twin nucleus size and the equilibrium equation of the applied shear stress and twin width during twin growth are obtained. The dependence of the critical resolved shear stress for twinning on the grain size, which conforms to the classic Hall–Petch relationship, is theoretically modelled. Additionally, the disclination quadrupole model for de-twinning is used to interpret the strength softening in nt-Cu. Relative to the classic kinetic and energetic models, this novel approach is more compatible with the experiments.     

A modified Jiles method for hysteresis computation including minor loops

This work presents a new methodology for determination of hysteresis curves based on the Jiles–Atherton method. The magnetic induction is adopted as an independent variable which is available in the vector potential magnetic field formulation. The presented method can be directly incorporated in a finite element software.