Antipersistent behavior of defects in a lyotropic liquid crystal during annihilation

TL;DR

This study investigates the dynamics of defect pairs in lyotropic liquid crystals, revealing their anti-persistent, long-range correlated behavior during annihilation, supported by experimental observations and simulations.

Contribution

It provides the first statistical analysis of defect velocities showing anti-persistence and long-range correlations, validated by experimental data and Lebwohl-Lasher model simulations.

Findings

Defect velocities are Gaussian distributed.

Defects exhibit anti-persistent behavior.

Experimental results align with simulations.

Abstract

We report on the dynamical behavior of defects of strength s = +/- 1/2 in a lyotropic liquid crystal during the annihilation process. By following their positions using time resolved polarizing microscopy technique, we present statistically significant evidence that the relative velocity between defect pairs is Gaussian distributed, anti-persistent and long-range correlated. We further show that simulations of the Lebwohl-Lasher model reproduce quite well our experimental findings.