Hydrodynamic Enhancement of<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:mi>p</mml:mi></mml:math>-atic Defect Dynamics

Abstract

We investigate numerically and analytically the effects of hydrodynamics on the dynamics of topological defects in p-atic liquid crystals, i.e., two-dimensional liquid crystals with p-fold rotational symmetry. Importantly, we find that hydrodynamics fuels a generic passive self-propulsion mechanism for defects of winding number s=(p-1)/p and arbitrary p. Strikingly, we discover that hydrodynamics always accelerates the annihilation dynamics of pairs of ±1/p defects and that, contrary to expectations, this effect increases with p. Our Letter paves the way toward understanding cell intercalation and other remodeling events in epithelial layers.

Topics & Concepts