Surface Nematic Quasi-Uniformity

Abstract

Line fields on surfaces are a means to describe the nematic order that may pattern them. The least distorted nematic fields are called uniform, but they can only exist on surfaces with negative constant Gaussian curvature. To identify the least distorted nematic fields on a generic surface, we relax the notion of uniformity into that of quasi-uniformity and prove that all such fields are parallel transported (in Levi-Civita's sense) by the geodesics of the surface. Both global and local constructions of quasi-uniform fields are presented to illustrate both richness and significance of the proposed notion.