English

Density Dependent Cohesion Leads to Controlled Phase Separation in Brownian Suspensions

Soft Condensed Matter 2017-11-29 v1

Abstract

Mechanical interactions between biological cells may be mediated by secreted products, making them dependent on the local particle density. Here, we explore the generic physics of density-dependent attractive interactions. We show using Brownian dynamics simulations that density-dependent interactions can produce interesting phase separation behaviour including control of aggregate size during a spinodal decomposition-like separation process. We show that these results are generic using continuum modelling of the appropriate Cahn-Hilliard equation. Our study suggests that density-dependent interactions can provide a generic mechanism for control of aggregate size during phase separation.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1711.10272,
  title  = {Density Dependent Cohesion Leads to Controlled Phase Separation in Brownian Suspensions},
  author = {Gavin Melaugh and Davide Marenduzzo and Alexander Morozov and Rosalind J. Allen},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1711.10272},
  year   = {2017}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-22T22:59:21.657Z