Related papers: Thickness-dependent secondary structure formation …
We analyze static properties of a strongly confined semiflexible polymer, i.e. either trapped in a closed space or compressed by external forces, in an athermal solvent. Like a flexible polymer case, we can resort to an analogy with the…
Understanding and controlling the shape of thin, soft objects has been the focus of significant research efforts among physicists, biologists, and engineers in the last decade. These studies aim to utilize advanced materials in novel,…
Entangled states are ubiquitous amongst fibrous materials, whether naturally occurring (keratin, collagen, DNA) or synthetic (nanotube assemblies, elastane). A key mechanical characteristic of these systems is their ability to reorganise in…
The shape of a polymer plays an important role in determining its interactions with other molecules and with the environment, and is in turn affected by both of them. As a consequence, in the literature the shape properties of a chain in…
The coupled dynamics of entangled polymers which span a broad time and length scales govern the unique viscoelastic properties of polymers. To follow chain mobility by numerical simulations from the intermediate Rouse and reptation regimes…
In contrast to most self-assembling synthetic materials, which undergo unbounded growth, many biological self-assembly processes are self-limited. That is, the assembled structures have one or more finite dimensions that are much larger…
The properties of the interface in a phase-separated solution of polymers with different degrees of polymerization and Kuhn segment lengths are calculated. The starting point is the planar interface, the profile of which is calculated in…
Heteropolymers are ubiquitous in both synthetic systems, such as block copolymers, and biological macromolecules, including proteins and nucleic acids. Beyond their chemical composition, these polymers often exhibit spatial variations in…
Dynamics of a polymer chain in solution gets significantly affected by the temperature and the frictional forces arising due to solvent viscosity. Here, using an explicit solvent framework for polymer simulation with the liberty to tune the…
Triangular lattice models for pattern formation by hard-core soft-shell particles at interfaces are introduced and studied in order to determine the effect of the shell thickness and structure. In model I, we consider particles with…
Many variants of RNA, DNA, and even proteins can be considered semiflexible polymers, where bending stiffness, as a type of energetic penalty, competes with attractive van der Waals forces in structure formation processes. Here, we…
The non-equilibrium structural and dynamical properties of semiflexible polymers confined to two dimensions are investigated by molecular dynamics simulations. Three different scenarios are considered: The force-extension relation of…
We study analytically a model of a two dimensional, partially directed, flexible or semiflexible polymer, attached to an attractive wall which is perpendicular to the preferred direction. In addition, the polymer is stretched by an…
Chain molecules play important roles in industry and in living cells. Our focus here is on distinct ways of modeling the stiffness inherent in a chain molecule. We consider three types of stiffnesses -- one yielding an energy penalty for…
Rigidity transitions in simple models of confluent cells have been a powerful organizing principle in understanding the dynamics and mechanics of dense biological tissue. In this work we explore the interplay between geometry and rigidity…
Self-assembly of ordered nanometer-scale patterns is interesting in itself, but its practical value depends on the ability to predict and control pattern formation. In this paper we demonstrate theoretically and numerically that engineering…
Extensive coarse grained molecular dynamics simulations are performed to investigate the conformational phase diagram of a neutral polymer in the presence of attractive crowders. We show that, for low crowded densities, the polymer…
Self-propelled particles can spontaneously form dense phases from a dilute suspension in a process referred to as motility-induced phase separation. The properties of the out-of-equilibrium structures that are formed are governed by the…
Entangled polymers are deformed by a strong shear flow. The shape of the polymer, called the form factor, is measured by small angle neutron scattering. However, the real-space molecular structure is not directly available from the…
The reliability of any day-to-day material is critically dictated by its properties. One factor which governs the behaviour of a material, under a given condition, is the microstructure. Despite the absence of any phase transformation, a…