Solitons in Liquid Crystals [Paperback]

Solitons are a well-known and intriguing aspect of nonlinear behavior in a continuous system such as a fluid: a wave propagates through the medium without distortion. Liquid crystals are highly ordered systems without a rigid, long-range structure. Solitons in liquid crystals (sometimes referred to as walls ) have a wide variety of remarkable properties that are becoming important for practical applications such as electroluminescent display. This book, the first review of the subject to be published, contains not only surveys of the existing literature, but presents new results as well.Solitons are a well-known and intriguing aspect of nonlinear behavior in a continuous system such as a fluid: a wave propagates through the medium without distortion. Liquid crystals are highly ordered systems without a rigid, long-range structure. Solitons in liquid crystals (sometimes referred to as walls ) have a wide variety of remarkable properties that are becoming important for practical applications such as electroluminescent display. This book, the first review of the subject to be published, contains not only surveys of the existing literature, but presents new results as well.1 Introduction.- 1.1 Liquid Crystal Phases.- 1.2 Solitons in Liquid Crystals.- References.- 2 Solitons and Field Induced Solitons in Liquid Crystals.- 2.1 Introduction.- 2.2 Solitons.- 2.2.1 Origin and Definition.- 2.2.2 A Brief History.- 2.3 Soliton Equations.- 2.3.1 Korteweg-deVries Equation.- 2.3.2 Nonlinear Schr?dinger Equation.- 2.3.3 Sine-Gordon Equation.- 2.3.4 Fisher Equation.- 2.3.5 The Damped ?4Equation.- 2.3.6 Other Equations.- 2.4 Constructing Soliton Equations.- 2.5 Methods of Solving Soliton Equations.- 2.5.1 Inverse Scattering Method.- 2.5.2 B?cklund Transformation.- 2.5.3 Hirota Method.- 2.5.4 Perturbation.- 2.5.5 Numerical Method.- 2.5.6 Experimental Simulation.- 2.6 Formation of Solitons.- 2.7 Magnetic Field Induced Solitons in Nematics.- 2.7.1 Early Works.- 2.7.2 Nematics Under Til��