Eur. Phys. J. B 24, 135-140 (2001)
https://doi.org/10.1007/s100510170030

Front propagation in smectic-C^* liquid crystals in the presence of stochastic electric and magnetic fields

¹ Departament d'Enginyeria Mecànica, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Ctra. Salou s/n, 43006 Tarragona, Spain
² Departament d'Estructura i Constituents de la Matèria, Universitat de Barcelona, Av. Diagonal 647, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
³ Facultad de Matemática, Astronomía y Física, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Ciudad Universitaria, Córdoba (5000), Argentina

Corresponding author: ^a msantos@etse.urv.es

Received: 5 July 2001
Published online: 15 November 2001

Abstract

We study the dynamics of fronts in ferroelectric smectic-C^* liquid crystals under the influence of stochastic electric or magnetic fields. The order parameter (tilt angle) follows a stochastic partial differential equation with a nonlinear noise which has a spatiotemporal structure.