Marlics: A finite difference liquid crystal simulation package
Description
In this paper we present Marlics (Maringá Liquid Crystal Simulator), a software written in C++ to obtain either the system dynamics, by using the Runge-Kutta method, or the minimum energy states with the Fast Inertial Relaxation Engine (FIRE) for both achiral and chiral nematic liquid crystals. The system solved by Marlics consists in the dynamical evolution for the Q-tensor in the Landau-de Gennes formalism for different geometries, including confined slab cells and spherical, liquid crystal droplets. Furthermore, the code accepts custom geometries, so the user may provide a particular geometry of interest to run simulations. The program takes as input a descriptive file giving the simulations parameters and initial conditions, generating a series of different snapshots distributed in time according to the users' needs. Several initial conditions are provided to help the user starting simulations direct to different goals. The code is organized in class modules, which can be modified by the user base to attend their further needs.