Elastic multibody interactions in a nematic liquid crystal

A nematic liquid crystal (LC) exhibits a tendency towards uniform molecular alignment. Bodies inserted into such a fluid can disturb this orientational order, resulting in elastic stresses bound in the bulk fluid and exerted on the body surfaces, even at equilibrium. One avenue of energy relaxation is the repositioning of the immersed bodies. Another is through the motion of topological defects, or near defects, along the boundaries. A boundary integral method for rapidly computing the LC configuration with multiple immersed bodies will be discussed, which involves a delicate handling of these near-defect positions, owing to a topological constraint reminiscent of the Stokes paradox.