Nucleation of Topological Dipoles¶in Nematic Liquid Crystals

A topological dipole is a pair of point defects with opposite topological charges. In this paper we show by example how the nucleation of such a dipole within a smooth field can drive a metastable state into a stable one. Building on our previous work, we construct a mathematical model for the dynamics of both monopoles and dipoles in a capillary filled with a nematic liquid crystal. Though our analysis is fit for liquid crystals, a similar mechanism is also likely to apply to the field theory for other ordered media. Received: 10 July 1997 / Accepted: 25 June 1998