Orientational correlations in active and passive nematic defects

Understand

We investigate the emergence of orientational order among +1/2 disclinations in active nematic liquid crystals.

• Using a combination of theoretical and experimental methods, we show that +1/2 disclinations have short-range antiferromagnetic alignment, as a consequence of the elastic torques originating from their polar structure.
• The presence of intermediate -1/2 disclinations, however, turns this interaction from anti-aligning to aligning at scales that are smaller than the typical distance between like-sign defects.
• No long-range orientational order is observed.