A theory of the dielectric loss in the aligned nematic mesophase

A theory of dielectric absorption and dispersion in the nematic phase is developed which does not rely on the use of a nematic “director”. The major features of the spectrum are reproduced by using the fact that the autocorrelation functions 〈μ(0) · υ(t)〉 and 〈υ(t) · μ(0)〉 are no longer symmetry disallowed when the overall sample is anisotropic, as in the aligned nematic. Here μ is the dipole vector of the diffusing molecule and υ the centre of mass linear velocity.