Mutual diffusion of inclusions in freely suspended smectic liquid crystal films

We study experimentally and theoretically the hydrodynamic interaction of pairs of circular inclusions in two-dimensional, fluid smectic membranes suspended in air. By analyzing their Brownian motion, we find that the radial mutual mobilities of identical inclusions are independent of their size but...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review letters 2014-09, Vol.113 (12), p.128304-128304, Article 128304
Main Authors: Qi, Zhiyuan, Nguyen, Zoom Hoang, Park, Cheol Soo, Glaser, Matthew A, Maclennan, Joseph E, Clark, Noel A, Kuriabova, Tatiana, Powers, Thomas R
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biphenyl Compounds - chemistry
Boundary element method
Brownian motion
Computational fluid dynamics
Diffusion
Fluid flow
Hydrodynamics
Inclusions
Liquid Crystals - chemistry
Mathematical analysis
Mathematical models
Membranes, Artificial
Models, Chemical
Nitriles - chemistry
Rheology
Silicone Oils - chemistry
Viscoelastic Substances - chemistry
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Summary:We study experimentally and theoretically the hydrodynamic interaction of pairs of circular inclusions in two-dimensional, fluid smectic membranes suspended in air. By analyzing their Brownian motion, we find that the radial mutual mobilities of identical inclusions are independent of their size but that the angular coupling becomes strongly size dependent when their radius exceeds a characteristic hydrodynamic length. These observations are described well for arbitrary inclusion separations by a model that generalizes the Levine-MacKintosh theory of point-force response functions and uses a boundary-element approach to calculate the mobility matrix for inclusions of finite extent.
ISSN:0031-9007
1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.113.128304