Cladis, P.E.; Brand, Helmut R. - In: Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications 326 (2003) 3, pp. 322-332
We experimentally demonstrate that, for sufficiently small perturbations, a hedgehog (H) and antihedgehog (H̄) point defect in nematic liquid crystals can be asymptotically free. For larger external perturbations, we find that the annihilation dynamics of an HH̄ pair to a static soliton is...