Hydrodynamic Enhancement of $p$-atic Defect Dynamics

Abstract

We investigate numerically and analytically the effects of hydrodynamics on the dynamics of topological defects in $p-$atic liquid crystals, i.e. two-dimensional liquid crystals with $p-$fold rotational symmetry. Importantly, we find that hydrodynamics fuels a generic passive self-propulsion mechanism for defects of winding number $s=(p-1)/p$ and arbitrary $p$. Strikingly, we discover that hydrodynamics always accelerates the annihilation dynamics of pairs of $\pm 1/p$ defects, and that, contrary to expectations, this effect increases with $p$. Our Letter paves the way towards understanding cell intercalation and other remodelling events in epithelial layers.