On the weak nematic elasticity and soft deformation modes

Abstract

The paper investigates the general case of incompressible non-classical elasticity with small deformations and rotations. It is shown that the internal spin rotations are important only when a specific Born term is presented in the free energy. The thermodynamic stability conditions and existence of soft deformational modes are analysed for free energy with three rotational degrees of freedom and scalar order parameter. It is shown that the soft deformation modes do not always exist. If the conditions for existence of soft modes are satisfied and the Born term is absent, the stress tensor is proved to be symmetric. It is shown that the infinitesimal Warner potential satisfies these conditions. When the stress symmetry could be assumed only approximately, a simplified, "reduced" relations are derived for the free energy and stress. The reduce formulation, which preserves the general stability conditions and the condition for existence of soft deformations, also allows easy calculations of stress-strain-rotation relations.