Related papers: Spontaneous free-boundary structure in crumpled me…
Biomembranes are thin capacitors with the unique feature of displaying phase transitions in a physiologically relevant regime. We investigate the voltage and lateral pressure dependence of their capacitance close to their chain melting…
We study the formation and evolution of localized geometrical defects in an indented cylindrical elastic shell using a combination of experiment and numerical simulation. We find that as a symmetric localized indentation on a…
Membrane tubes (spicules) arise in cells, or artificial membranes, in the nonlinear deformation regime due to, e.g. the growth of microtubules, actin filaments or sickle hemoglobin fibers towards a membrane. We calculate the axial force…
Scattering between edge states that bound one-dimensional domains of opposite potential or flux is studied, in the presence of strong potential or flux disorder. A mobility edge is found as a function of disorder and energy, and we have…
Liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs) can undergo large reversible contractions along their nematic director upon heating or illumination. A spatially patterned director within a flat LCE sheet thus encodes a pattern of contraction on heating,…
We study the reflection of an acoustic plane wave from a steadily sliding planar interface with velocity strengthening friction or a shear band in a confined granular medium. The corresponding acoustic impedance is utterly different from…
We study the flow induced by random vibration of a solid boundary in an otherwise quiescent fluid. The analysis is motivated by experiments conducted under the low level and random effective acceleration field that is typical of a…
We investigate the regularity of the free boundaries in the 3 elastic membranes problem. We show that the two free boundaries corresponding to the coincidence regions between consecutive membranes are $C^{1,\log}$-hypersurfaces near a…
The accurate measurement of fracture resistance in elastomers is essential for predicting the mechanical limits of soft devices. Usually, this is achieved by performing tearing or peeling experiments on thin-sheet samples. Here, we show…
Rod-like objects at high packing fractions can form smectic phases, where the rods break rotational and translational symmetry by forming lamellae. Smectic defects thereby include both discontinuities in the rod orientational order…
Excitable media, ranging from bioelectric tissues and chemical oscillators to forest fires and competing populations, are nonlinear, spatially extended systems capable of spiking. Most investigations of excitable media consider situations…
We study the properties of the lower bound on the exchange-correlation energy in two dimensions. First we review the derivation of the bound and show how it can be written in a simple density-functional form. This form allows an explicit…
The statistical properties of a large number of weakly nonlinear waves can be described in the framework of the Weak Turbulence Theory. The theory is based on the hypothesis of an asymptotically large system. In experiments, the systems…
The free energy of inserting a protein into a membrane is determined by considering the variation in the spectrum of thermal fluctuations in response to the presence of a rigid inclusion. Both numerically and through a simple analytical…
A statistical study of crumpled paper is allowed by a minimal 1D model: a self-avoiding line bent at sharp angles -- in which resides the elastic energy -- put in a confining potential. Many independent equilibrium configurations are…
Thin elastic sheets bend easily, leading to mechanical instabilities such as wrinkling. Here, we investigate wrinkles at edges of bi-strips, which consist of two thin sheets, one that swells and one that does not, joined side-by-side. It is…
The electrostatic contribution to spontaneous membrane curvature is calculated within Poisson-Boltzmann theory under a variety of assumptions and emphasizing parameters in the physiological range. Asymmetric surface charges, either fixed…
The effect of AC electric fields on the elasticity of supported lipid bilayers has been investigated at the microscopic level using grazing incidence synchrotron x-ray scattering. A strong decrease in the membrane tension up to 1mN/m and a…
The phenomenon of arrest of an unstably-growing crack due to a curved weak interface is investigated. The weak interface can produce the deviation of the crack path, trapping the crack at the interface, leading to stable crack growth for…
Integral membrane proteins deform the surrounding bilayer creating long-ranged forces that influence distant proteins. These forces can be attractive or repulsive, depending on the proteins' shape, height, contact angle with the bilayer, as…