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DY: Fachverband Dynamik und Statistische Physik
DY 13: Statistical Physics (general)
DY 13.4: Talk
Monday, March 7, 2016, 15:45–16:00, H48
Q–tensor Density Functional Theory of Non–spherical Hard–Body Mixtures — •Rodrigo Lugo-Frias and Sabine H. L. Klapp — Institut für Theoretische Physik, Technische Universität Berlin, Hardenbergstr. 36, 10623 Berlin, Germany
In nature there are numerous examples of polydisperse systems composed of molecules with different shapes and concentrations. The behavior of these complex fluids in and out of equilibrium is a long–standing problem with relevance in material science, engineering and soft matter theory.
On the basis of density functional theory and the phase–field–crystal model for liquid crystals [1] we derive in detail a free energy functional of an N component hard–body mixture in terms of a set of tensorial order parameters {Qi}. In contrast to previous works on binary non–spherical mixtures [2], our free energy functional includes gradients of the order parameters. Thus, our description can be used as a starting point to explore liquid–crystalline phases of mixed systems with spatial inhomogeneities, or as an input to mesoscopic dynamical equations for the orientational order parameters.
[1] R. Wittkowski, H. Löwen and H. R. Brand, Phys. Rev. E, 82, 031708 (2010).
[2] R. Lugo-Frias and S. H. L. Klapp, J. Phys.: Condens. Matter, submitted (2015).