Related papers: Kinetically driven helix formation during the homo…
We use a series of molecular dynamics simulations, and analytical theory, to demonstrate that a system of hard spheres confined to a narrow cylindrical channel exhibits a continuous phase transition from an isotropic fluid at low densities,…
Interest in the protein folding problem has motivated a wide range of theoretical and experimental studies of the kinetics of the collapse of flexible homopolymers. In this Paper a phenomenological model is proposed for the kinetics of the…
The shape of the building blocks plays a crucial role in directing self-assembly towards desired architectures. Out of the many different shapes, helix has a unique position. Helical structures are ubiquitous in nature and a helical shape…
We present a scaling theory describing the collapse of a homopolymer chain in poor solvent. At time t after the beginning of the collapse, the original Gaussian chain of length N is streamlined to form N/g segments of length R(t), each…
The collapse and swelling behavior of a generic homopolymer is studied using implicit-solvent, explicit-cosolvent Langevin dynamics computer simulations for varying interaction strengths. The systematic investigation reveals that polymer…
When a thin stream of aqueous sodium alginate is extruded into a reacting calcium chloride bath, it polymerizes into a soft elastic tube that spontaneously forms helical coils due to the ambient fluid drag. We quantify the onset of this…
A theoretical study of the emergence of helices in the wake of precipitation fronts is presented. The precipitation dynamics is described by the Cahn-Hilliard equation and the fronts are obtained by quenching the system into a linearly…
We have used computer simulation to study the collapse of a hydrophobic chain in water. We find that the mechanism of collapse is much like that of a first order phase transition. The evaporation of water in the vicinity of the polymer…
We propose a potential for wormlike polymer chains which can be used to model the low-temperature conformational structures. We successfully reproduced helix ground states up to 6.5 helical loops, using the multicanonical Monte Carlo…
The physical mechanisms that bring about the propulsion of a rotating helix in a granular medium are considered. A propulsive motion along the axis of the rotating helix is induced by both symmetry breaking due to the helical shape, and the…
We present a molecular simulation study of the structure of linear dendronized polymers. We use excluded volume interactions in the context of a generic coarse-grained molecular model whose geometrical parameters are tuned to represent a…
We explore the non-equilibrium dissipative dynamics of a system of identical charged particles trapped on a closed helix. The particles are subject to an external force accelerating them along the underlying structure. The effective…
Most helix-coil transition theories can be characterized by a set of three parameters: energetic, describing the (free) energy cost of forming a helical state in one repeating unit; entropic, accounting for the decrease of entropy due to…
Direct near field electrospinning is used to produce very long helical polystyrene microfibers in water. The pitch length of helices can be controlled by changing the applied voltage, allowing to produce both micro springs and…
We investigate the dynamics and the pathways of the collapse of a single, semiflexible polymer in a poor solvent via 3-D Brownian Dynamics simulations. Earlier work indicates that the condensation of semiflexible polymers generically…
Experiments on a thin layer of cohesive wet granular matter under vertical vibrations reveal kink separated domains that collide with the container at different phases. Due to the strong cohesion arising from the formation of liquid bridges…
Microbial flagellates typically inhabit complex suspensions of polymeric material which can impact the swimming speed of motile microbes, filter-feeding of sessile cells, and the generation of biofilms. There is currently a need to better…
We have studied the competition between helix formation and aggregation for a simple polymer model. We present simulation results for a system of two such polymers, examining the potential of mean force, the balance between inter and…
A self-consistent field theory was developed in the grand-canonical ensemble formulation to study transitions in a helix-coil multiblock globule. Helical and coil parts are treated as stiff rods and self-avoiding walks of variable lengths…
Helices are the quintessential geometric motif of the microscale, from alpha-helices in proteins to double helices in DNA. Assembly of the helical geometry of biopolymers is a foundational step in a hierarchy of structure that eventually…