{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,30]],"date-time":"2026-07-30T12:13:10Z","timestamp":1785413590274,"version":"3.56.0"},"reference-count":33,"publisher":"American Physical Society (APS)","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,2]],"date-time":"2026-02-02T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1769990400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100007937","name":"Peking University","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100007937","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100018781","name":"Leverhulme Research Centre for Functional Materials Design","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["RPG-2021-401"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["RPG-2021-401"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100018781","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/100008078","name":"University of Strathclyde","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100008078","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["journals.aps.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Phys. Rev. E"],"accepted":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,6]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>\n                    We study bent-core nematic (BCN) systems in two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) settings, focusing on the role of cybotactic clusters, phase transitions, confinement effects, and applied external fields. We propose a generalized version of Madhusudana's two-state model for BCNs [] with two order parameters:\n                    <a:math xmlns:a=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/1998\/Math\/MathML\">\n                      <a:msub>\n                        <a:mi mathvariant=\"bold\">Q<\/a:mi>\n                        <a:mi>g<\/a:mi>\n                      <\/a:msub>\n                    <\/a:math>\n                    to describe the ambient ground-state (GS) molecules and\n                    <c:math xmlns:c=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/1998\/Math\/MathML\">\n                      <c:msub>\n                        <c:mi mathvariant=\"bold\">Q<\/c:mi>\n                        <c:mi>c<\/c:mi>\n                      <\/c:msub>\n                    <\/c:math>\n                    to describe the additional ordering induced by the cybotactic clusters. The equilibria are modeled by minimizers of an appropriately defined free energy, with an empirical coupling term between\n                    <e:math xmlns:e=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/1998\/Math\/MathML\">\n                      <e:msub>\n                        <e:mi mathvariant=\"bold\">Q<\/e:mi>\n                        <e:mi>g<\/e:mi>\n                      <\/e:msub>\n                    <\/e:math>\n                    and\n                    <g:math xmlns:g=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/1998\/Math\/MathML\">\n                      <g:msub>\n                        <g:mi mathvariant=\"bold\">Q<\/g:mi>\n                        <g:mi>c<\/g:mi>\n                      <\/g:msub>\n                    <\/g:math>\n                    . We demonstrate two phase transitions in spatially homogeneous 3D BCN systems at fixed temperatures: a first-order nematic-paranematic transition followed by a paranematic-isotropic phase transition driven by the GS-cluster coupling. We also numerically compute and give heuristic insights into solution landscapes of confined BCN systems on 2D square domains, tailored by the GS-cluster coupling, temperature, and external fields. This benchmark example illustrates the potential of this generalized model to capture tunable director profiles, cluster properties, and potential biaxiality induced by antagonistic\n                    <i:math xmlns:i=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/1998\/Math\/MathML\">\n                      <i:msub>\n                        <i:mi mathvariant=\"bold\">Q<\/i:mi>\n                        <i:mi>g<\/i:mi>\n                      <\/i:msub>\n                    <\/i:math>\n                    and\n                    <k:math xmlns:k=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/1998\/Math\/MathML\">\n                      <k:msub>\n                        <k:mi mathvariant=\"bold\">Q<\/k:mi>\n                        <k:mi>c<\/k:mi>\n                      <\/k:msub>\n                    <\/k:math>\n                    profiles.\n                  <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1103\/w85s-mwn3","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,6]],"date-time":"2026-01-06T19:24:36Z","timestamp":1767727476000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1103\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Landau-de Gennes modeling of confinement effects and cybotactic clusters in bent-core nematic liquid crystals"],"prefix":"10.1103","volume":"113","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9436-4224","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Yucen","family":"Han","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/041pakw92","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}],"name":"Renmin University of China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1240-0362","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Prabakaran","family":"Rajamanickam","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/00n3w3b69","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}],"name":"University of Strathclyde"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0002-2031-2805","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Bedour","family":"Alturki","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/05b0cyh02","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}],"name":"Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University"},{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/00n3w3b69","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}],"name":"University of Strathclyde"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Apala","family":"Majumdar","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/027m9bs27","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}],"name":"University of Manchester"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"16","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,2]]},"reference":[{"key":"w85s-mwn3Cc1R1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1093\/oso\/9780198520245.001.0001","type":"book","volume-title":"The Physics of Liquid Crystals","author":"P.-G. 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All rights are reserved, including those for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies.","name":"copyright_statement","label":"Copyright statement","group":{"name":"copyright","label":"copyright"}},{"value":"2026","name":"copyright_year","label":"Copyright year","group":{"name":"copyright","label":"copyright"}},{"value":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/","name":"creative_commons_license","label":"Creative Commons license","group":{"name":"licenses","label":"Licenses"}},{"value":"\u00a92026 The authors","name":"copyright_holder","label":"Copyright holder","group":{"name":"copyright","label":"copyright"}}],"article-number":"025403"}}