Complex backflow dynamics in nematic liquid crystals (Q699699)

The authors study numerically the backflow problem of a nematic liquid crystal confined to a long capillary and subjected to external magnetic field. They review the nematodynamic equations, introduce the characteristic scales, and give a short explanation of numerical implementation. The snapshots of three-dimensional director and velocity fields are presented. It is demonstrated that there are cases where the backflow does not merely introduce quantitative corrections to the director dynamics, but changes the relaxation process in a complete manner.