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Weakly Sheared Active Liquid Crystals

Zhenlu Cui
Fayetteville State University
We present a kinetic model for active liquid crystals and analyze the behavior of a particle subject to slow steady simple shear. We give the stability analysis of the steady states and predict the rheology of such systems including an activity thickening or thinning behavior of the apparent viscosity and a negative apparent viscosity depending on the particle shape, activity, their flow alignment behavior, and the boundary anchoring conditions of the director, which can be tested on bacterial particles.

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