Twisted Line Liquids

Abstract

We propose a model of directed lines where the average direction has the nature of a cholesteric liquid crystal. This model, for instance, would describe the liquid of screw dislocations in the twist-grain-boundary (TGB) phase of liquid crystals. We show that the presence of lines does not alter the long wavelength elasticity of a cholesteric and, therefore, does not stabilize Landau-Peierls instability of the cholesteric phase. We discuss other possible mechanisms for stabilizing the twist-grain-boundary phase.