Related papers: Liquid crystal cells with "dirty" substrates
We use the isoconfigurational (IC) ensemble to show the connection between emerging heterogeneities in the tetrahedral order parameter and the dynamic propensity in a mildly undercooled glass-forming liquid. We observe that spatially…
How epithelial cells coordinate their polarity to form functional tissues is an open question in cell biology. Here, we characterize a unique type of polarity found in liver tissue, nematic cell polarity, which is different from vectorial…
We study the behavior of negatively charged colloids with two positively charged polar caps close to a planar patterned surface. The competition between the different anisotropic components of the particle-particle interaction patterns is…
Frustration refers to competition between different interactions that cannot be simultaneously satisfied, a familiar feature in many magnetic solids. Strong frustration results in highly degenerate ground states, and a large suppression of…
Spatial heterogeneity in the elastic properties of soft random solids is investigated via a two-pronged approach. First, a nonlocal phenomenological model for the elastic free energy is examined. This features a quenched random kernel,…
In numerical simulations, spontaneously broken symmetry is often detected by computing two-point correlation functions of the appropriate local order parameter. This approach, however, computes the square of the local order parameter, and…
A thin circular elastic sheet floating on a drop-like liquid substrate is deformed due to incompatibility between the curved substrate and the planar sheet. We adopt a variational viewpoint by minimizing the non-convex membrane energy…
We discuss the use of Langevin molecular dynamics in the investigation of the non-equilibrium properties of disordered vortex matter. Our special focus is set on values of system parameters that are realistic for disordered high-$T_c$…
Resonant soft X-ray scattering was used to determine the presence of more subtle orderings not detected in standard structural analyses. By tuning to specific Co absorption edges, arrangements particular to the electronic states of those…
Liquid crystal elastomers are special cross-linked polymer materials combining the large elastic deformability of elastomers with the orientational orders of liquid crystals. This model exhibits markedly different phenomena than the liquid…
We describe a 3D percolation-type approach to modeling of the processes of aging and certain other properties of tissues analyzed as systems consisting of interacting cells. Lattice sites are designated as regular (healthy) cells, senescent…
We investigate the microscopic origin of water's anomalies by inspecting the hydrogen bond network (HBN) and the spatial organization of low-density-liquid (LDL) like and high-density-liquid (HDL) like environments. Specifically, we…
Liquid crystals consisting of biaxial particles can exhibit a much richer phase behavior than their uniaxial counterparts. Usually, one has to rely on simulation results to understand the phase diagram of these systems, since very few…
Understanding the drift motion and dynamical locking of crystalline clusters on patterned substrates is important for the diffusion and manipulation of nano- and micro-scale objects on surfaces. In a previous work, we studied the…
We present recent Monte Carlo results on surfaces of bcc-structured binary alloys which undergo an order-disorder phase transformation in the bulk. In particular, we discuss surface order and surface induced disorder at the bulk transition…
In the study of colloidal, biological and electrochemical systems, it is customary to treat surfaces, macromolecules and electrodes as homogeneously charged. This simplified approach is proven successful in most cases, but fails to describe…
We present Monte Carlo simulations of surface induced disordering in a model of a binary alloy on a bcc lattice which undergoes a first order bulk transition from the ordered DO3 phase to the disordered A2 phase. The data are analyzed in…
Active systems, from bacterial suspensions to cellular monolayers, are continuously driven out of equilibrium by local injection of energy from their constituent elements and exhibit turbulent-like and chaotic patterns. Here we demonstrate…
We study the pinning of a two-dimensional membrane to a patterned substrate within elastic theory both in the bending rigidity and in the strain dominated regimes. We find that both the in-plane strains and the bending rigidity can lead to…
We consider a disk-shaped thin elastic sheet bonded to a compliant sphere. (Our sheet can slip along the sphere; the bonding controls only its normal displacement.) If the bonding is stiff (but not too stiff), the geometry of the sphere…