Related papers: Coarse-Grained Modeling of a Deformable Nematic Ve…
We use a coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulation to investigate the interaction between neutral or charged nanoparticles (NPs) and a vesicle consisting of neutral and negatively charged lipids. We focus on the interaction strengths of…
Cellular membranes exhibit a large variety of shapes, strongly coupled to their function. Many biological processes involve dynamic reshaping of membranes, usually mediated by proteins. This interaction works both ways: while proteins…
We study the dynamics of membrane vesicle motor transport into dendritic spines, which are bulbous intracellular compartments in neurons that play a key role in transmitting signals between neurons. We consider the stochastic analog of the…
We propose a simple surface potential favoring the planar degenerate anchoring of nematic liquid crystals, i.e., the tendency of the molecules to align parallel to one another along any direction parallel to the surface. We show that, at…
Using computer simulations we investigate the microscopic structure of the singular director field within a nematic droplet. As a theoretical model for nematic liquid crystals we take hard spherocylinders. To induce an overall topological…
The aim of this paper is to propose a new numerical model to simulate 2D vesicles interacting with a newtonian fluid. The inextensible membrane is modeled by a chain of circular rigid particles which are maintained in cohesion by using two…
To acquire the ability to numerically study the rheology of particulate two-phase flows that lack scale separation, we present a general method to average or coarse-grain the equations of motion of a mixture of a continuous fluid of…
Evidence of a special chiral nematic phase is provided using numerical simulation and Onsager theory for systems of hard helical particles. This phase appears at the high density end of the nematic phase, when helices are well aligned, and…
A theoretical study of vesicles of topological genus zero is presented. The bilayer membranes forming the vesicles have various degrees of intrinsic (tangent-plane) orientational order, ranging from smectic to hexatic, frustrated by…
We discuss the role coarse-grained models play in the investigation of the structure and thermodynamics of bilayer membranes, and we place them in the context of alternative approaches. Because they reduce the degrees of freedom and employ…
We use molecular dynamics to study the ordering of a nematic liquid crystal around a spherical particle or droplet. Homeotropic boundary conditions and strong anchoring create a hedgehog director configuration on the particle surface and in…
We use numerical simulations to systematically investigate the vesicle dynamics in two-dimensional (2D) Taylor-Green vortex flow in the absence of inertial forces. Vesicles are highly deformable membranes encapsulating an incompressible…
Predicting the macroscopic chiral behaviour of cholesteric liquid crystals from the microscopic chirality of the particles is highly non-trivial, even when the chiral interactions are purely entropic in nature. Here we introduce a novel…
We use linear stability analysis to show that an isotropic phase of elongated particles with dipolar flow fields can develop nematic order as a result of their activity. We argue that ordering is favoured if the particles are flow-aligning…
In recent years there has been a growing interest in the study of shape formation using modern responsive materials that can be preprogrammed to undergo spatially inhomogeneous local deformations. In particular, nematic liquid crystalline…
Modelling micro- and meso-scopic scale thermodynamic and transport properties of soft condensed matter hinges upon its representation. This is especially relevant for polar solvents such as water, since these require effective…
By means of computer simulations we study how droplets of hard, rod-like particles optimize their shape and internal structure under the influence of the osmotic compression caused by the presence of spherical particles that act as…
We demonstrate a variety of ordered patterns, including hexagonal structures and chains, formed by colloidal particles (droplets) at the free surface of a nematic liquid crystal (LC). The surface placement introduces a new type of particle…
We experimentally investigate how a long granular pile confined in a narrow channel destabilizes when it is inclined above the angle of repose. A uniform flow then develops, which is localized at the free surface. It first accelerates…
In active matter systems, deformable boundaries provide a mechanism to organize internal active stresses and perform work on the external environment. To study a minimal model of such a system, we perform particle-based simulations of an…