Biological Molecules (cholesterol) Left-Handed Not Invariant under Inversions, Reflections Like Threads on a Screw (but Reflected) Line Up Grooves on Top Guy with Threads on Bottom Small Rotation Angle

Natural Parallel Transport Straight Along n Twists Perpendicular to n Connection with Torsion!

• The Blue Phases: Introduction
• What Are Liquid Crystals?
• Order Parameter Fields
• Defects in Nematic Liquids
• Homotopy Theory and Defects
• Parallel Transport and Energy
• Twisted Parallelism: Chiral Nematics
• Chiral Nematic Phases: Helical and Blue
• Blue Phases: Networks of Defect Lines
• Defect Lines and Frustration: Curved Space

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Sethna's Research 90-94

Entertaining Science done at

LASSP.

James P. Sethna, sethna@lassp.cornell.edu

Statistical Mechanics: Entropy, Order Parameters, and Complexity, now available at Oxford University Press (USA, Europe).