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On the Microscopic Origin of Cholesteric Pitch

A. B. Harris, Randall D. Kamien, T. C. Lubensky

cond-mat.softarXiv:cond-mat/9607084

Abstract

We present a microscopic analysis of the instability of the nematic phase to chirality when molecular chirality is introduced perturbatively. We show that previously neglected short-range biaxial correlations play a crucial role in determining the cholesteric pitch. We propose an order parameter which quantifies the chirality of a molecule.

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