Tóth Géza, Denniston Colin, Yeomans J M
Department of Physics, Theoretical Physics, University of Oxford, 1 Keble Road, Oxford OX1 3NP, United Kingdom.
Phys Rev Lett. 2002 Mar 11;88(10):105504. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.88.105504. Epub 2002 Feb 26.
We show that backflow, the coupling between the order parameter and the velocity fields, has a significant effect on the motion of defects in nematic liquid crystals. In particular, the defect speed can depend strongly on the topological strength in two dimensions and on the sense of rotation of the director about the core in three dimensions.