Elastic energy and string configurations in the chiral gauge theory of   biaxial uniaxial nematic phase transitions
  In nematic liquid crystals (NLCs), topological defects of a chiral origin play a role in phase transitions and lead to phase configurations of nontrivial topology, like those in neutron stars and helium in the A-phase. In the biaxial-uniaxial phase transition, the deformation of the orbit, as the order parameter degeneracy of the NLC, connects together an evolution of topological defects, the surface anchoring energy and elastic Frank modui. In this work we estimate the chiral gauge field presentation of the constrained Ladnau-de Gennes theory of the biaxial nematics, which have to explain their topologically dependent phase transformation, using the description of the transformation of disclinations in the biaxial nematic phase into the surface bojooms of a uniaxial NLC. 
L. V. Elnikova
cond-mat.soft