New Elastic-Hydrodynamic Theory of Liquid Crystals

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Abstract
A new linearized theory of the elastic and hydrodynamic properties of liquid crystals is presented. The theory requires neither a new state variable (the director) nor a new equation of motion for that variable. Instead, it relies exclusively on the standard conservation equations of mass, energy, and momentum. The foundation of the theory is the observation that the twisting and bending deformations of a liquid crystal are described by higher derivatives of the displacement than those which occur in the usual shear elastic energy of a crystal. Normal isotropic fluid behavior occurs only when both of these elastic energies vanish. The theory leads to quantitative relations between measured elastic and viscous parameters and measured light-scattering linewidths.

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