Shear flow induced propagating domains in cholesterics

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Abstract
It is shown, that shear flow destabilizes the planar texture of cholesterics of pitch small compared to sample thickness above a threshold shear rate. In addition, in the presence of the shear, perturbations of the planar configuration propagate with a velocity proportional to the shear rate. In this paper we present a simplified theory of these effects and compare our results with experimental data