REPLY TO COMMENT ON PERIODIC DISTORTIONS IN LYOTROPIC NEMATIC CALAMITIC LIQUID-CRYSTALS

We reply to the Comment of Grigutsch and Stannarius [Phys. Rev. E 56, 7323 (1997)] about our paper [Phys. Rev. E 54, 3765 (1996)]. It is sho wn that there are defined conditions in which an elastic approach to s tudy some features of the physics of the walls appearing above the Fre edericksz threshold can be instructive, and even recommended. We analy ze the torque balance equation and the exact solution of an equation i n our previous paper to show that there are no arbitrary elastic const ants to be fixed. Instead of this we show that they arise naturally as integration constants of the Euler-Lagrange equation which must be de termined in the transient fluid flow period. Finally, using the exact solution of the elastic problem, we show that there are no mistakes in our computations and interpretations.