Structure changes induced by external multiplicative noise in the electrohydrodynamic instability of nematic liquid crystals

We study the influence of external multiplicative noise on the electrohydrodynamic instability (EHD) in nematic liquid crystals. It turns out that the correlation time _n and the intensityQ of the noise are the crucial parameters to control the system. Different types of noise lead to minor quantitative changes when compared to Gaussian white noise, leaving the qualitative aspects unchanged. With increasing noise intensity the threshold for the onset of the first instability changes drastically. We observe that the curvature arising when the threshold of the various instabilities is plotted as a function of the noise intensity changes as one is going, e.g., from the onset of Williams domains (WD) to the onset of the grid pattern (GP). This result reflects the transition in the flow structure from two-dimensional (WD) to three-dimensional (GP, DSM) flow patterns. As the intensity of the noise is increased further, the onset of the first instability becomes more complex. The measurement of the nonlinear onset time shows a strong dependence on the noise intensityQ, which is linear for WD and GP well above onset. The linear onset time shows an unexpected dependence on the noise intensity close to the onset of the first instability. For sufficiently long correlation times of the noise, a destabilization by noise is obtained.