Constant-angle surfaces in liquid crystals

We discuss some properties of surfaces in R3 whose unit normal has constant angle with an assigned direction field. The constant angle condition can be rewritten as an Hamilton-Jacobi equation correlating the surface and the direction field. We focus on examples motivated by the physics of interfaces in liquid crystals and of layered fluids, and discuss the properties of the constant-angle surfaces when the direction field is singular along a line (disclination) or at a point (hedgehog defect

Dynamical density functional theory for colloidal particles with arbitrary shape

Starting from the many-particle Smoluchowski equation, we derive dynamical density functional theory for Brownian particles with an arbitrary shape. Both passive and active (self-propelled) particles are considered. The resulting theory constitutes a microscopic framework to explore the collective dynamical behavior of biaxial particles in nonequilibrium. For spherical and uniaxial particles, earlier derived dynamical density functional theories are recovered as special cases. Our study is motivated by recent experimental progress in preparing colloidal particles with many different biaxial shapes.Comment: 9 pages, 1 figur