On the uniqueness of weak solutions to the Ericksen-Leslie liquid crystal model in $\mathbb R^2$

Abstract

This paper concerns the uniqueness of weak solutions to the Cauchy problem to the Ericksen-Leslie system of liquid crystal models in $\mathbb R^2$, with both general Leslie stress tensors and general Oseen-Frank density. It is shown here that such a system admits a unique weak solution provided that the Frank coefficients are close to some positive constant, which solves an interesting open problem. One of the main ideas of our proof is to perform suitable energy estimates at level one order lower than the natural basic energy estimates for the Ericksen-Leslie system.