A good and computationally efficient polynomial approximation to the Maier–Saupe nematic free energy

A new computational strategy is proposed to approximate, with a simple but accurate expression, the Maier–Saupe free energy for nematic order. Instead of the traditional approach of expanding the free energy with a truncated Taylor series, we employ a least-squares fitting to obtain the coefficients...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Soulé, Ezequiel Rodolfo, Rey, Alejandro D.
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2011
País:Argentina
Institución:Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas
Repositorio:CONICET Digital (CONICET)
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:ri.conicet.gov.ar:11336/9754
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/11336/9754
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Liquid Crystal
Phase Transition
Maier–Saupe Theory
Landau–De Gennes Theory
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/2.5
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/2
Descripción
Sumario:A new computational strategy is proposed to approximate, with a simple but accurate expression, the Maier–Saupe free energy for nematic order. Instead of the traditional approach of expanding the free energy with a truncated Taylor series, we employ a least-squares fitting to obtain the coefficients of a polynomial expression. Both methods are compared, and the fitting with at most five polynomial terms is shown to provide a satisfactory fitting, and to give much more accurate results than the traditional Taylor expansion. We perform the analysis in terms of the tensor order parameter, so the results are valid in uniaxial and biaxial states.