Orientational order on surfaces - the coupling of topology, geometry, and dynamics

TL;DR

This paper investigates the numerical modeling of surface-bound orientational order using various discretization methods, highlighting the influence of geometry and topology on defect formation and energy minimization.

Contribution

It compares four numerical discretizations for surface orientational order and explores how geometry affects defect configurations and energy.

Findings

Different discretizations yield comparable results on surfaces with Euler characteristic 2.

Geometric properties influence the realization of the Poincare-Hopf theorem.

Introducing defects can lower the surface energy.

Abstract

We consider the numerical investigation of surface bound orientational order using unit tangential vector fields by means of a gradient-flow equation of a weak surface Frank-Oseen energy. The energy is composed of intrinsic and extrinsic contributions, as well as a penalization term to enforce the unity of the vector field. Four different numerical discretizations, namely a discrete exterior calculus approach, a method based on vector spherical harmonics, a surface finite-element method, and an approach utilizing an implicit surface description, the diffuse interface method, are described and compared with each other for surfaces with Euler characteristic 2. We demonstrate the influence of geometric properties on realizations of the Poincare-Hopf theorem and show examples where the energy is decreased by introducing additional orientational defects.