Reconfiguration of Nematic Dislocations

Abstract

Basic natural entities seems to be physical fields. From this perspective elementary particles should correspond to robust localized field configurations. Most probable candidates for such configurations are topological defects. They are topologically protected and they exhibit robust body-like features. Particularly adequate structures are line defects which could display also linked or knotted configurations. Such structures could be relatively easily created, manipulated and observed in nematic liquid crystals. In this contribution we focus on nematic elementary line defects characterised by winding number |m|=½. We illustrate that they behave as line-like robust elastic objects. However, they could be reconfigured into qualitatively different conformations where topological conservation rules are obeyed. Keywords: Fields; Topological defects; Topological charge; Disclinations; Liquid crystals