Analytical and computational paths from molecular foundations to continuum descriptions

Workshop theme

As part of this workshop, The British Liquid Crystal Society (BLCS), the Statistical Mechanics and Thermodynamics Group (SMTG) of the Royal Society of Chemistry and the Isaac Newton Institute (INI) will be holding a one day workshop on the molecular modelling and theory of liquid crystals at the Isaac Newton Institute on Friday 22 March 2013. If you are already registered for the workshop on Analytical and Computational Paths from Molecular Foundations to Continuum Descriptions, you are welcome to attend this event at no extra charge; there is no need to register separately.

Many of the phenomena exhibited by liquid crystals occur on the macroscopic or mesoscopic length scale. This makes the application of continuum theories, as exemplified by the orientational elasticity theory of Oseen and Frank, the order tensor descriptions of Landau and de Gennes, and the hydrodynamics of Ericksen, Leslie and Parodi, particularly fruitful. Along with the continuum theory go the ideas of defect structures and textures, which give liquid crystals a beautiful appearance, as well as involving some beautiful mathematical ideas. In recent years, however, interest in the molecular or particle-based description of liquid crystals has steadily increased. This is partly motivated by the ability of experiments to probe down to the nanoscale, partly by the explosion of interest in colloidal suspensions in which the constituent particles are of micron size, and partly from the desire to relate molecular structure and interactions to liquid crystalline properties and phase behaviour in a predictive way. Here, computer simulation plays a key role, especially in regimes where the assumptions of continuum theories are suspect. Finally, the upsurge in development of classical density functional theories of liquids, starting with Onsager's original treatment, has given another link between molecular shape and behaviour in bulk and in confined geometry.

This workshop will bring together experts in all the above fields, to compare and contrast the various approaches, and discuss topical problems in liquid crystals to which analytical methods, and computational techniques, may provide the solutions.

Timetable

Monday 18th March 2013
08:30 to 08:50	Registration	No Room Required
08:50 to 09:00	Welcome by Director, Professor John Toland	No Room Required
09:00 to 09:50	John Ball University of Oxford Satisfaction of the eigenvalue constraints on the $Q$-tensor	Room 1
09:50 to 10:40	Daan Frenkel University of Cambridge The physics of unphysical simulations	Room 1
10:40 to 11:00	Morning Coffee	No Room Required
11:00 to 11:50	Bob Evans University of Bristol Density Functional Theory for Hard-Body Models of Liquid Crystals	Room 1
11:50 to 12:40	Roberto Berardi Università di Bologna Coarse-grained modelling and computer simulations of liquid crystals	Room 1
12:40 to 13:30	Lunch at Wolfson Court	No Room Required
14:00 to 14:50	Mike Cates University of Edinburgh Active liquid crystals and the origins of cellular locomotion	Room 1
14:50 to 15:40	Alexandros Vanakaras University of Patras Biaxial Nematics: Symmetry and Hierarchical Domain Structure	Room 1
15:40 to 16:00	Afternoon Tea	No Room Required
16:00 to 16:50	Simone Belli Universiteit Utrecht Brick-by-brick stabilizing the Biaxial Nematic Phase	Room 1
16:50 to 17:50	Welcome wine reception	No Room Required

Tuesday 19th March 2013
09:00 to 09:50	Liquid Crystal Director Models with Coupled Electric Fields	Room 1
09:50 to 10:40	Modelling a planar bistable device on different scales	Room 1
10:40 to 11:00	Morning Coffee	No Room Required
11:00 to 11:50	Nigel Mottram University of Strathclyde Modelling planar bistable devices: from Q-tensor to director models	Room 1
11:50 to 12:40	SAFT force fields for coarse-grained MD simulations	Room 1
12:40 to 13:30	Lunch at Wolfson Court	No Room Required
13:30 to 17:00	Free Afternoon	Room 1

Wednesday 20th March 2013
09:00 to 09:50	Marjolein Dijkstra Universiteit Utrecht Glassy dynamics, spinodal fluctuations, and nucleation in suspensions of colloidal hard rods and plates	Room 1
09:50 to 10:40	Andrew John Masters University of Manchester Simulations of model biaxial particles	Room 1
10:40 to 11:00	Morning Coffee	No Room Required
11:00 to 11:50	Amparo Galindo Imperial College London Phase behaviour in mixtures of unixial hard particles: biaxiality and confinement	Room 1
11:50 to 12:40	Epifanio Virga Università degli Studi di Pavia Different flavours of the mean-field theory	Room 1
12:40 to 13:30	Lunch at Wolfson Court	No Room Required
14:00 to 14:50	Lech Longa Uniwersytet Jagiellonski Lebwohl-Lasher models of liquid crystals: from quadrupolar to spontaneously induced chiral order	Room 1
14:50 to 15:40	Luca Muccioli Università di Bologna Atomistic molecular dynamics simulations of cyanobiphenyls: A test bench for liquid crystal theories	Room 1
15:40 to 16:00	Afternoon Tea	No Room Required
16:00 to 16:50	Jaroslav Ilnytskyi National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine Microphase separation driven transitions in macromolecular liquid crystals by computer simulations	Room 1

Thursday 21st March 2013
09:00 to 09:50	Miha Ravnik University of Ljubljana Design of liquid crystal superstructures: geometry, topology, flow, and mesophase	Room 1
09:50 to 10:40	Martin Schoen Technische Universität Berlin Isotropic-polar phase transition in an amphiphilic fluid	Room 1
10:40 to 11:00	Morning Coffee	No Room Required
11:00 to 11:50	Peter Palffy-Muhoray Kent State University Modeling Multi-component Liquid Crystal Systems	Room 1
11:50 to 12:40	Juan de Pablo University of Chicago Directed assembly in liquid crystals. Nanoparticles and nanodroplets	Room 1
12:40 to 13:30	Lunch at Wolfson Court	No Room Required
14:00 to 14:50	Gregor Skacej University of Ljubljana Molecular modeling of liquid crystal elastomers	Room 1
14:50 to 15:40	Jonathan Selinger Kent State University The Round Table Discussion	Room 1
15:40 to 16:00	Afternoon Tea	No Room Required
16:00 to 17:00	Poster Session	Discussion Room
19:30 to 22:00	Conference Dinner at Christ's College	No Room Required

Friday 22nd March 2013
09:00 to 09:50	Alejandro Rey McGill University Structure and Dynamics of Anisotropic Soft Matter	Room 1
09:50 to 10:40	Ibrahim Fatkullin University of Arizona Liquid crystals out of equilibrium: connecting molecular dynamics, kinetic and hydrodynamic equations	Room 1
10:40 to 11:00	Morning Coffee Followed by:	No Room Required
11:00 to 17:00	BLCS/SMTG/INI workshop on the molecular modelling and theory of liquid crystals	No Room Required

Analytical and computational paths from molecular foundations to continuum descriptions

Speakers

John Ball University of Oxford
Simone Belli Universiteit Utrecht
Roberto Berardi Università di Bologna
Mike Cates University of Edinburgh
Juan de Pablo University of Chicago
Marjolein Dijkstra Universiteit Utrecht
Bob Evans University of Bristol
Ibrahim Fatkullin University of Arizona
Daan Frenkel University of Cambridge
Amparo Galindo Imperial College London
Jaroslav Ilnytskyi National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine
Lech Longa Uniwersytet Jagiellonski
Andrew John Masters University of Manchester
Nigel Mottram University of Strathclyde
Luca Muccioli Università di Bologna
Peter Palffy-Muhoray Kent State University
Miha Ravnik University of Ljubljana
Alejandro Rey McGill University
Martin Schoen Technische Universität Berlin
Jonathan Selinger Kent State University
Gregor Skacej University of Ljubljana
Alexandros Vanakaras University of Patras
Epifanio Virga Università degli Studi di Pavia

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Analytical and computational paths from molecular foundations to continuum descriptions

Workshop theme

Timetable

Speakers

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