Dynamic cubic instability in a 2D Q-tensor model for liquid crystals

Abstract

We consider a four-elastic-constant Landau–de Gennes energy characterizing nematic liquid crystal configurations described using the Q-tensor formalism. The energy contains a cubic term and is unbounded from below. We study dynamical effects produced by the presence of this cubic term by considering an L 2 gradient flow generated by this energy. We work in two dimensions and concentrate on understanding the relations between the physicality of the initial data and the global well-posedness of the system.