ABSTRACT
Some classes of nematic liquid crystals can be driven through turbulent regimes when forced by an external electric field. In contrast to isotropic fluids, a turbulent nematic exhibits a transition to a stochastic regime that is characterised by a network of topological defects. We study the deformations arising after the electric field has been switched-off. In contrast to the turbulent regime, the relaxation of this topological-defect regime involves the annihilation of an interlacement of defect lines. We show that these defect lines separate regions of the nematic having topologically non-equivalent textures.
Graphical Abstract
![](/cms/asset/ed80092a-bdba-46df-9469-f74d70e82355/tlct_a_1555649_uf0001_oc.jpg)
Acknowledgments
We thank Alfredo Pane for having prepared the experimental cells, and acknowledge Jonasz Słomka and Ridha Hamdi for useful discussions.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Supplementary material
Supplemental data can be accessed here.
Notes
1. We note here that at the threshold the relaxation time is usually defined as
[Citation4], because the static distortion has periodicity
. For
the distortion periodicity is reduced to
.