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Exotic states of matter in an oscillatory driven liquid crystal cell

Matter under different equilibrium conditions of pressure and temperature exhibits different states such as solid, liquid, gas, and plasma. Exotic states of matter, such as Bose- Einstein condensates, superfluidity, chiral magnets, superconductivity, and liquid crystalline blue phases are observed in thermodynamic equilibrium. Rather than being a result of an aggregation of matter, their emergence is due to a change of a topological state of the system. Here we investigate topological states of matter in a system with injection and dissipation of energy. In an experiment involving a liquid crystal cell under the influence of a low-frequency oscillatory electric field, we observe a transition from non-vortex state to a state in which vortices persist. Depending on the period and the type of the forcing, the vortices self-organise forming square lattices, glassy states, and disordered vortex structures. Based on a stochastic amplitude equation, we recognise the origin of the transition as the balance between stochastic creation and deterministic annihilation of vortices. Our results show that the matter maintained out of equilibrium by means of the temporal modulation of parameters can exhibit exotic states.