Effects of three-body intermolecular interactions on the nematic—paranematic phase diagram

An extension of the Maier—Saupe theory of the nematic—isotropic transition in liquid crystals, which incorporates three-body intermolecular interactions into the effective single-particle pseudopotential, is presented. Numerical calculations based on this theory are performed to investigate the effect of these three-body interactions on the nematic—isotropic transition in zero field, on the nematic—paranematic coexistence curve in the presence of an applied field, and on the mean field nematic—paranematic critical point. The zero field results are in good agreement with experimental measurements.