Asymmetry of the time dynamics of breathers in the electroconvection twist structure of a nematic

Dynamics of breather defects in the periodic structures of rolls arising at electroconvection in nematic liquid crystals twisted by π/2 has been studied experimentally and theoretically. The axial components of the velocity of a hydrodynamic flow in the twist structures of nematics are opposite in the neighboring rolls. Dynamics of the breather defect is the periodic creation and annihilation of a pair of classical dislocations with the topological indices “+1” and “-1.” The annihilation occurs faster than the creation. It has been shown that the asymmetric time dynamics of the breather defect is described well by the solution of the perturbed sine-Gordon equation in the form of an interacting soliton and antisoliton.