Members’ Seminar

Smectic liquid crystals correspond to certain foliations of Euclidean space. I will discuss the topology of defects in the smectics. Typically the index of these topological defects is characterized via the fundamental group of the manifold of ground states. I will review this approach and present a new formulation of the classification of defects which avoids inconsistencies in the traditional homotopy approach. No background necessary!