Related papers: Random networks of cross-linked directed polymers
A recurring motif in the organization of biological tissues are networks of long, fibrillar protein strands effectively confined to cylindrical surfaces. Often, the fibers in such curved, quasi-2D geometries adopt a characteristic order:…
Transient networks comprised of polymers connected by short-lived bonds are a common design theme for both biological and synthetic materials. Transient bonds can provide mechanical rigidity, while still allowing for visco-elastic flows on…
We study the influence of some quenched disorder in the sequence of monomers on the entropic elasticity of long polymeric chains. Starting from the Kratky-Porod model, we show numerically that some randomness in the favoured angles between…
While polymer solutions lack the mechanical stability only transiently cross-linked networks can fulfill the competing requirements of structural stability and maximal energy dissipation. Here, we show that transient cross-links entail…
Directed polymers in random environment have usually been constructed with a simple random walk on the integer lattice. It has been observed before that several standard results for this model continue to hold for a more general reference…
We study the relation between the directed polymer and the directed percolation models, for the case of a disordered energy landscape where the energies are taken from bimodal distribution. We find that at the critical concentration of the…
We suggest a simple model for reversible cross-links, binding and unbinding to/from a network of semiflexible polymers. The resulting frequency dependent response of the network to an applied shear is calculated via Brownian dynamics…
We consider the point-to-point continuum directed random polymer ($\mathsf{CDRP}$) model that arises as a scaling limit from $1+1$ dimensional directed polymers in the intermediate disorder regime. We show that the annealed law of a…
We considered diffusion-driven processes on small-world networks with distance-dependent random links. The study of diffusion on such networks is motivated by transport on randomly folded polymer chains, synchronization problems in…
Disordered networks of semiflexible filaments are common support structures in biology. Familiar examples include fibrous matrices in blood clots, bacterial biofilms, and essential components of cells and tissues of plants, animals, and…
We consider models of directed random polymers interacting with a defect line, which are known to undergo a pinning/depinning (or localization/delocalization) phase transition. We are interested in critical properties and we prove, in…
We have developed a theory of polymer entanglement using an extended Cahn-Hilliard functional, with two extra terms. One is a nonlocal attractive term, operating over mesoscales, which is interpreted as giving rise to entanglement, and the…
Polymer models are used to describe chromatin, which can be folded at different spatial scales by binding molecules. By folding, chromatin generates loops of various sizes. We present here a randomly cross-linked (RCL) polymer model, where…
This paper extends a field-theoretical dynamical networking formalism for mesoscopic polymer dynamics to explicitly include dedicated cross-linker particles. Cross-linkers are represented within a Martin-Siggia-Rose generating functional…
We examine how the distribution of contour lengths and the high-stretch stiffening of individual chain segments affect the macroscopic shear modulus of flexible polymer gels, using a 2D numerical model, in which polymer segments form a…
A simple model of cyclically competing species on a directed graph with quenched disorder is proposed as an extension of the rock-paper-scissors model. By assuming that the effects of loops in a directed random graph can be ignored in the…
The non-linear stress-strain relation for crosslinked polymer networks is studied using molecular dynamics simulations. Previously we demonstrated the importance of trapped entanglements in determining the elastic and relaxational…
We investigate the crystallization of crosslinked and entangled polymers under external deformation using a coarse-grained poly(vinyl alcohol) (CG-PVA) model and molecular dynamics simulations. Following uniaxial deformation, the systems…
The stretchability of polymeric materials is critical to many applications such as stretchable electronics and soft robotics, yet the stretchability of conventional cross-linked linear polymers is limited by the entanglements between…
The selective solute partitioning within a polymeric network is of key importance to applications in which controlled release or uptake of solutes in a responsive hydrogel is required. In this work we investigate the impact of cross-links…