PHASE-ORDERING DYNAMICS OF NEMATIC LIQUID-CRYSTALS

We study phase ordering in nematic liquid crystals using cell-dynamics simulations for d = 2, n = 2 and d = 3, n = 3. The tail in the structure function decays as k(-chi), with chi = 4.0 +/- 0.1 for d = 2 and chi = 5.3 +/- 0.1 for d = 3. We compare these values to results of Bray and Puri [Phys. Rev. Lett. 67, 2670 (1991)] for a vector order parameter and to experimental measurements. For the d = 3 system the characteristic length scale in the system varies as L(t) approximately t(phi), with phi = 0.44 +/- 0.01.