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Abstract
Employing the Ericksen-Leslie continuum theory of liquid crystals we present expressions for the speed and the amplitude of acceleration and higher-order twist waves propagating in nematic and cholesteric liquid crystals. Such waves were first discussed by Fergason and Brown and also by Ericksen.
We show that it is due to nonlinearity of the stored energy density that acceleration twist waves can survive for all time in liquid crystals and possibly lead to phase transitions associated with shock waves.