Transient Statistics of the Freedericksz Transition in Nematic Liquid Crystals

Abstract The transient statistical feature of the Freedericksz transition in nematic liquid crystals is investigated. The explicit first-passage-time distribution function is derived with the approximation of neglecting the noise in the path of the transient process. Monte Carlo results of numerical simulations show good agreement with the theoretical analysis when the initial field is close or above the critical value of the Freedericksz transition indicating that the effect of noise in the path is negligible in this case.