Topological Metamorphosis in the Phase Diagram of a Liquid of Biaxial Micellar Aggregates

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The change in the shape of biaxial micellar aggregates is shown to influence strongly the specific features reported for the phase diagrams of lyonematic and lyocholesteric systems. The current isotropic-biaxial nematic theoretical model needs to be completed by considering an additional noncritical order parameter, which expresses the change in the micellar form and produces a topological metamorphosis of the standard two-component order-parameter diagram. This transformation results in a drastic restructuring of the phase diagram involving a symmetric folding of the phases and singularities.