ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews molecular theories of bent-core liquid crystals (BLCs) and some results of numerical simulations. In particular, it focuses on the development of the polar order in achiral BLCs and discusses intermolecular interactions based on microscopic theories. Microscopic description considering interactions between the mesogens can help to shed light on the preference of the mesogens to form a particular type of mesophase such as polar or nonpolar, tilted or orthogonal. The chapter briefly outlines the main principles of the construction of the mean-field phase diagram developed in T. C. Lubensky and L. Radzihovsky. As in the case of standard nematogens, it is the entropic interactions rather than electric ones that drive the phase transitions. A dominating ordering factor in the stabilization of the nematic phase is the shape of mesogens rather than electric dipoles. The chapter shows that electrostatic interactions are yet important to stabilize polar structures in smectics.
