Light scattering in nematic liquid crystals in the presence of shear flow

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Abstract
We theoretically investigate fluctuations in a nematic liquid crystal about a non-equilibrium steady state due to a stationary shear flow. For the special case, where the wave-vector lies in the shear plane, we find that the central peak in the light scattering spectrum (caused by director fluctuations) is (in addition to the trivial Doppler shift) considerably flattened, broadened and reduced in total intensity, if compared to the equilibrium situation. The non-equilibrium contributions are essentially wave-vector independent, because the shear flow breaks just that symmetry (externally), which is already broken spontaneously in nematics