PIMS / AMI Seminar: Francois Gay-Balmaz

There are two competing descriptions of nematic liquid crystal
dynamics: the Ericksen-Leslie director theory and the Eringen
micropolar approach. Up to this day, these two descriptions have
remained distinct in spite of several attempts to show that the
micropolar theory comprises the director theory. In this talk I will
show that this is the case by using Lie group symmetry reduction
techniques. More precisely, I will show how these systems can be seen
as reduced Euler-Lagrange equations on semidirect product Lie
algebras and how this geometric approach can be used to prove that
the micropolar theory of liquid crystal comprises the well-known
Ericksen-Leslie theory.