  In liquid-crystalline elastomers, the nematic order parameter and the induced
strain vary smoothly across the isotropic-nematic transition, without the
expected first-order discontinuity. To investigate this smooth variation, we
measure the strain as a function of temperature over a range of applied stress,
for elastomers crosslinked in the nematic and isotropic phases, and analyze the
results using a variation on Landau theory. This analysis shows that the smooth
variation arises from quenched disorder in the elastomer, combined with the
effects of applied stress and internal stress.
