Eur. Phys. J. E (2009) 28: 315-329
https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/i2008-10441-1

Regular Article

Nematic films and radially anisotropic Delaunay surfaces

Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania, 19104-6396, Philadelphia, PA, USA

^* e-mail: kamien@physics.upenn.edu

Received: 13 November 2008
Accepted: 7 January 2009
Published online: 12 February 2009

Abstract

We develop a theory of axisymmetric surfaces minimizing a combination of surface tension and nematic elastic energies which may be suitable for describing simple film and bubble shapes. As a function of the elastic constant and the applied tension on the bubbles, we find the analogues of the unduloid, sphere, and nodoid in addition to other new surfaces.