Related papers: The limits of filopodium stability
The packing problem of long thin filaments that are injected into confined spaces is of fundamental interest for physicists and biologists alike. How linear threads pack and coil is well known only for the ideal case of rigid containers,…
Topological phonon modes are robust vibrations localized at the edges of special structures. Their existence is determined by the bulk properties of the structures and, as such, the topological phonon modes are stable to changes occurring…
More physics at the boundaries of a topological lattice remains to be explored for future applications of topological edge states. This work investigates the stability of topological edge states in the presence of a moving impurity. By…
Filamentous cyanobacteria are one of the oldest and today still most abundant lifeforms on earth, with manifold implications in ecology and economics. Their flexible filaments, often several hundred cells long, exhibit gliding motility in…
The $m$-waves of Kelvin are uniformly rotating patch solutions of the 2D Euler equations with $m$-fold rotational symmetry for $m\geq 2$. For Kelvin waves sufficiently close to the disc, we prove a nonlinear stability result up to an…
Using a combination of theory, experiments, and numerical simulations, we investigate the stability of coherent structures in a suspension of strongly aligned active swimmers. We show that a dilute jet of pullers undergoes a pearling…
Asymmetries and anisotropies are widespread in biological systems, including in the structure and dynamics of cilia and eukaryotic flagella. These microscopic, hair-like appendages exhibit asymmetric beating patterns that break…
For various cell types and for lamellipodial fragments on flat surfaces, externally induced and spontaneous transitions between symmetric nonmoving states and polarized migration have been observed. This behavior is indicative of…
Nonlinear normal modes are periodic orbits that survive in nonlinear chains, whose instability plays a crucial role in the dynamics of many-body Hamiltonian systems toward thermalization. Here we focus on how the stability of nonlinear…
A model for the dynamics of actin filament ends along the leading edge of the lamellipodium is analyzed. It contains accounts of nucleation by branching, of deactivation by capping, and of lateral flow along the leading edge by…
Suspended graphene exhibits ripples of size ranging from 50 to 100 {\AA} and height $\sim$10{\AA}, however, their origin remains undetermined. Previous theoretical works have proposed that rippling in graphene might be generated by the…
Motivated by experimental and numerical studies revealing that discoidal high-density lipoprotein (HDL) particles may adopt flat elliptical and nonplanar saddle-like configurations, it is hypothesized that these might represent stabilized…
We investigate the instability of a tubular fluid membranes made of a water soluble surfactant. The tubules are obtained at high salinities. The instability is due to the introduction within the vesicle multilayer of an alkane. We measure…
In this study we give a geometrical model which employs the smoothness of nerve fibers as differentiable curves. We show that a nerve fiber may encounter large curvature due to the possible helicial bending and hence it could cause the…
Peritrichous bacteria such as Escherichia coli swim in viscous fluids by forming a helical bundle of flagellar filaments. The filaments are spatially distributed around the cell body to which they are connected via a flexible hook. To…
In realizing practical non-trivial topological electronic phases stable structures need to be determined first. Tin and lead do stabilize an optimal two-dimensional high-buckled phase --a hexagonal-close packed bilayer structure with…
We study numerically and theoretically the gravity-driven flow of a viscous liquid film coating the inner side of a horizontal cylindrical tube and surrounding a shear-free dynamically inert gaseous core. The liquid-gas interface is prone…
The invasion of one fluid into another of higher viscosity in a quasi-two dimensional geometry typically produces complex fingering patterns. Because interfacial tension suppresses short-wavelength fluctuations, its elimination by using…
A long cylindrical cavity through a soft solid forms a soft microfluidic channel, or models a vascular capillary. We observe experimentally that, when such a channel bears a pressurized fluid, it first dilates homogeneously, but then…
The elastocapillary instability of a flexible plate plunged in a liquid bath is analysed theoretically. We show that the plate can bend due to two separate destabilizing mechanisms, when the liquid is partially wetting the solid. For…