Anomalous Elasticity of Polymer Cholesterics
Anomalous Elasticity of Polymer Cholesterics
We show that polymer cholesterics have much longer pitches than comparable short molecule cholesterics, due to their anomalous elasticity. The pitch $P$ of a chiral mixture with concentration $c$ near the racemic (nonchiral) concentration ${c}^{*}$ diverges similar to $|{c\ensuremath{-}c}^{*}{|}^{\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\nu}}$, with $\ensuremath{\nu}\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}=\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}1.43\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.04$ (for short molecule cholesterics, $\ensuremath{\nu}\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}=\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}1$). The short molecule law …