Discontinuous switching of position of two coexisting phases
Soft Condensed Matter
2018-08-15 v2
Abstract
Here we investigate how the positions of a condensed phase can be controlled by using concentration gradients of a regulator that influences phase separation. We consider a mean field model of a ternary mixture where a concentration gradient of a regulator is imposed by an external potential. We show that novel first order phase transition exists at which the position of the condensed phase switches in a discontinuous manner. This mechanism could have implications for the spatial organization of biological cells and provides a control mechanism for droplets in microfluidic systems.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1704.07276,
title = {Discontinuous switching of position of two coexisting phases},
author = {Samuel Krüger and Christoph A. Weber and Jens-UweSommer and Frank Jülicher},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1704.07276},
year = {2018}
}