标题： 胆甾相液晶壳层中的拓扑缺陷 显示英文标题

标题： Topological defects in cholesteric liquid crystal shells

摘要： 我们实验和数值地研究当胆甾相液晶被限制在球形壳中时出现的缺陷构型。 我们揭示了丰富的缺陷构型场景，其中一些在向列相壳中不存在，这些新的缺陷类型由液晶的螺旋排列稳定。 与向列相壳不同，这里的缺陷不是简单的奇点或线条，而是具有较大的结构核心。 具体来说，我们观察到五种不同的胆甾相壳。 我们研究了不同类型的壳在系统两个相关几何无量纲参数下的统计分布。 通过调整这些参数，我们能够诱导不同类型壳之间的转变。 这些转变涉及有趣的拓扑变换，在此过程中缺陷重新组合形成新结构。 令人惊讶的是，缺陷并不通过较短距离路径（测地线）相互接近，而是沿着复杂的路径移动。 显示英文摘要

摘要： We investigate experimentally and numerically the defect configurations emerging when a cholesteric liquid crystal is confined to a spherical shell. We uncover a rich scenario of defect configurations, some of them non-existent in nematic shells, where new types of defects are stabilized by the helical ordering of the liquid crystal. In contrast to nematic shells, here defects are not simple singular points or lines, but have a large structured core. Specifically, we observe five different types of cholesteric shells. We study the statistical distribution of the different types of shells as a function of the two relevant geometrical dimensionless parameters of the system. By playing with these parameters, we are able to induce transitions between different types of shells. These transitions involve interesting topological transformations in which the defects recombine to form new structures. Surprisingly, the defects do not approach each other by taking the shorter distance route (geodesic), but by following intricate paths.