Figure 9.

(a) Laser-tweezers-induced quench of a nematic liquid crystal without a fiber creates a tangle of topological defects, which all annihilate back to the vacuum. (b) If a long fiber is present, most of the defects annihilate, except for a pair of rings encircling the fiber. These two rings are like a particle and its anti-particle carrying opposite topological charges. Scale bar, 10 µm. Adapted from Ref. [71].