Schedule for: 22w5159 - Defects and Distortions of Layered Complex Fluids

Beginning on Sunday, October 2 and ending Friday October 7, 2022

All times in Banff, Alberta time, MDT (UTC-6).

Sunday, October 2
16:00 - 17:30 Check-in begins at 16:00 on Sunday and is open 24 hours (Front Desk - Professional Development Centre)
17:30 - 19:30 Dinner
A buffet dinner is served daily between 5:30pm and 7:30pm in Vistas Dining Room, top floor of the Sally Borden Building.
(Vistas Dining Room)
20:00 - 22:00 Informal gathering (TCPL Foyer)
Monday, October 3
07:00 - 08:45 Breakfast
Breakfast is served daily between 7 and 9am in the Vistas Dining Room, the top floor of the Sally Borden Building.
(Vistas Dining Room)
08:45 - 09:00 Introduction and Welcome by BIRS Staff
A brief introduction to BIRS with important logistical information, technology instruction, and opportunity for participants to ask questions.
(TCPL 201)
09:00 - 10:00 Scott MacLachlan: Welcome and Goal Setting
Welcome to Workshop In this session, we'll identify key questions and "big picture" goals for the community of researchers working on layered systems. We'll also identify possible goals for the workshop.
(TCPL 201)
10:00 - 10:30 Coffee Break (TCPL Foyer)
10:45 - 11:45 Randall Kamien: Tutorial: Introduction to smectics (TCPL 201)
11:30 - 13:00 Lunch
Lunch is served daily between 11:30am and 1:30pm in the Vistas Dining Room, the top floor of the Sally Borden Building.
(Vistas Dining Room)
13:00 - 14:00 Guided Tour of The Banff Centre
Meet in the PDC front desk for a guided tour of The Banff Centre campus.
(PDC Front Desk)
14:00 - 14:20 Group Photo
Meet in foyer of TCPL to participate in the BIRS group photo. The photograph will be taken outdoors, so dress appropriately for the weather. Please don't be late, or you might not be in the official group photo!
(TCPL Foyer)
14:20 - 15:00 Jonathan Selinger: Goals for Smectic Theory (Online)
15:00 - 15:30 Coffee Break (TCPL Foyer)
15:30 - 16:10 Mohamed Amine Gharbi: Hierarchical assembly of smectic defects at 3D printed curved geometries (TCPL 201)
16:10 - 16:50 Lisa Tran: Helfrich-Hurault-like undulations in cholesterics induced by anchoring transitions (TCPL 201)
17:30 - 19:30 Dinner
A buffet dinner is served daily between 5:30pm and 7:30pm in Vistas Dining Room, top floor of the Sally Borden Building.
(Vistas Dining Room)
Tuesday, October 4
07:00 - 08:45 Breakfast
Breakfast is served daily between 7 and 9am in the Vistas Dining Room, the top floor of the Sally Borden Building.
(Vistas Dining Room)
09:00 - 10:00 Emmanuelle Lacaze: Tutorial: Experimental methods
In this session, a panel of experimentalists will showcase the various techniques brought to study smectics.
(TCPL 201)
10:15 - 10:45 Coffee Break (TCPL Foyer)
10:45 - 11:45 Scott MacLachlan: Tutorial: Finite Element Methods (TCPL 201)
12:00 - 13:00 Lunch
Lunch is served daily between 11:30am and 1:30pm in the Vistas Dining Room, the top floor of the Sally Borden Building.
(Vistas Dining Room)
13:00 - 13:40 Jean De Dieu Niyonzima: Topological defects in thin smectic films (Online)
13:40 - 14:20 Emmanuelle Lacaze: Smectic topological defects and nanoparticles (TCPL 201)
14:20 - 15:00 Francesca Serra (TCPL 201)
15:00 - 15:30 Coffee Break (TCPL Foyer)
15:30 - 16:10 Patrick Farrell: Discretisation of a Q-tensor model for smectic-A liquid crystals (TCPL 201)
16:10 - 16:50 Tyler Shendruk: Dislocations, Disclinations and Quarter-charge Structures in 2D Lamellar Fluids (TCPL 201)
16:50 - 17:30 René Wittman: Topology of orientational defects of smectic colloidal liquid crystals in extreme confinement (TCPL 201)
17:30 - 19:30 Dinner
A buffet dinner is served daily between 5:30pm and 7:30pm in Vistas Dining Room, top floor of the Sally Borden Building.
(Vistas Dining Room)
Wednesday, October 5
07:00 - 08:45 Breakfast
Breakfast is served daily between 7 and 9am in the Vistas Dining Room, the top floor of the Sally Borden Building.
(Vistas Dining Room)
09:00 - 09:40 Apala Majumdar: Solution Landscapes for Nematic Liquid Crystals in Confinement and Some Generalisations to Smectics (Online)
09:40 - 10:20 Alison Ramage: A Moving Mesh Finite Element Method for Modelling Defects in Liquid Crystals (Online)
10:20 - 10:50 Coffee Break (TCPL Foyer)
10:50 - 11:30 Abdalaziz Hamdan: Mixed finite-element methods for smectic A liquid crystals (Online)
11:30 - 13:00 Lunch
Lunch is served daily between 11:30am and 1:30pm in the Vistas Dining Room, the top floor of the Sally Borden Building.
(Vistas Dining Room)
13:30 - 17:30 Free Afternoon (Banff National Park)
17:30 - 19:30 Dinner
A buffet dinner is served daily between 5:30pm and 7:30pm in Vistas Dining Room, top floor of the Sally Borden Building.
(Vistas Dining Room)
Thursday, October 6
07:00 - 08:45 Breakfast
Breakfast is served daily between 7 and 9am in the Vistas Dining Room, the top floor of the Sally Borden Building.
(Vistas Dining Room)
09:00 - 09:40 Bruno Zappone: Phase frustration and intermediate state in thin smectic films (Online)
09:40 - 10:20 Teresa Lopez-Leon: Filling a sphere with a layered liquid crystal: dilation, dislocations or anchoring violation? (Online)
10:20 - 10:50 Coffee Break (TCPL Foyer)
10:50 - 11:30 Nigel Motram: Wetting and dewetting transitions for layered nematic liquid crystal-isotropic liquid systems
We consider wetting and dewetting of a layered system of a nematic and an isotropic fluid, resting on a solid substrate. This type of situation, which includes nematic-substrate-isotropic three-phase contact lines are of great interest, both scientifically and technologically. In particular, in recent years, the push to exploit the interfacial, dielectric, and viscoelastic anisotropies of nematics has led to the development of devices used in flow processing, microelectronic production, and adaptive-lens technologies that extend beyond the well-known application of nematics in liquid crystal displays. Understanding many of these emerging technologies, which often involve nematic droplets or layered films, requires a theoretical description of the wetting and dewetting phenomena of nematics. To further understand wetting and dewetting phenomena for nematics, we analyse a two-dimensional static ridge of nematic resting on a solid substrate surrounded by an isotropic fluid. Specifically, we obtain the first complete theoretical description for this system, including nematic Young and Young-Laplace equations. Then, under the assumption that anchoring breaking occurs in regions adjacent to the contact lines, we use the nematic Young equations to determine the contact angle of the nematic ridge as a function of a nematic spreading parameter. Our findings indicate a range of anisotropic wetting and dewetting phenomena, including discontinuous transitions between the equilibrium states of the ridge that do not occur in the fully isotropic case. Authors: JRL Cousins, BR Duffy, SK Wilson and NJ Mottram
(Online)
11:30 - 13:00 Lunch
Lunch is served daily between 11:30am and 1:30pm in the Vistas Dining Room, the top floor of the Sally Borden Building.
(Vistas Dining Room)
13:00 - 13:40 Shawn Walker: Optimal Control of the Landau-de Gennes Model of Nematic Liquid Crystals (TCPL 201)
13:40 - 14:20 James Jackaman: Finite-element modelling of Fréedericksz transition in Smectic C Liquid Crystals (TCPL 201)
14:20 - 15:00 Sean Hare: Reversibility of Focal Conics Near the Cholesteric-Smectic Phase Transition (TCPL 201)
15:00 - 15:30 Coffee Break (TCPL Foyer)
15:30 - 16:10 Daniel Beller: Defects at the smectic-A-to-nematic phase transition: How far can we get with Landau-de Gennes? (TCPL 201)
16:10 - 16:50 Randall Kamien: Dislocations and disclinations in two and three dimensions. (TCPL 201)
16:50 - 17:30 Timothy Atherton: Smectics in moveable boundaries (TCPL 201)
17:30 - 19:30 Dinner
A buffet dinner is served daily between 5:30pm and 7:30pm in Vistas Dining Room, top floor of the Sally Borden Building.
(Vistas Dining Room)
Friday, October 7
07:00 - 08:45 Breakfast
Breakfast is served daily between 7 and 9am in the Vistas Dining Room, the top floor of the Sally Borden Building.
(Vistas Dining Room)
09:00 - 10:00 Scott MacLachlan: Wrap Up Discussions
In this session, participants will be invited to identify out any possible new collaborations that are emerging from the conference, share any work done during the conference, and we'll collectively identify possible goals and outcomes for further work.
(TCPL 201)
10:00 - 10:30 Coffee Break (TCPL Foyer)
10:30 - 11:00 Checkout by 11AM
5-day workshop participants are welcome to use BIRS facilities (TCPL ) until 3 pm on Friday, although participants are still required to checkout of the guest rooms by 11AM.
(Front Desk - Professional Development Centre)
11:00 - 12:00 Scott MacLachlan: Wrap Up Discussions II
In this session, participants will be invited to identify out any possible new collaborations that are emerging from the conference, share any work done during the conference, and we'll collectively identify possible goals and outcomes for further work.
(TCPL 201)
12:00 - 13:30 Lunch from 11:30 to 13:30 (Vistas Dining Room)