Related papers: The actin cortex as an active wetting layer
We consider an adhesive contact between a thin soft layer on a rigid substrate and a rigid cylindrical indenter ("line contact") with account of the surface tension of the layer. First, it is shown that the boundary condition for the…
The dynamics of dry active matter have implications for a diverse collection of biological phenomena spanning a range of length and time scales, such as animal flocking, cell tissue dynamics, and swarming of inserts and bacteria. Uniting…
The dynamics of a membrane coupled to an active fluid on top of a substrate is considered theoretically. It is assumed that the director field of the active fluid has rotational symmetry in the membrane plane. This situation is likely to be…
Through Monte Carlo simulations and the Associating Lattice Gas Model, the phases of a two-dimensional fluid under hydrophilic confinement are evaluated. The model, in its unconfined version, reproduces the anomalous behavior of water…
Surface properties of mixtures of charged platelike colloids and salt in contact with a charged planar wall are studied within density functional theory. The particles are modeled by hard cuboids with their edges constrained to be parallel…
Networks of filamentous actin (F-actin) are important for the mechanics of most animal cells. These cytoskeletal networks are highly dynamic, with a variety of actin-associated proteins that control cross-linking, polymerization and force…
Liquid-liquid phase separation of aqueous two-phase system (ATPS) is fundamental across physical and biological sciences. While well understood for passive systems, how this process is regulated by active agents such as motile bacteria…
Four on-lattice and six off-lattice models for active matter are studied numerically, showing that in contact with a wall, they display universal wetting transitions between three distinctive phases. The particles, which interact via…
We model the elasticity of the cerebral cortex as a layered material with bending energy along the layers and elastic energy between them in both planar and polar geometries. The cortex is also subjected to axons pulling from the underlying…
We investigate the equilibrium of a fluid in contact with a solid boundary through a density-functional theory. Depending on the conditions, the fluid can be in one phase, gas or liquid, or two phases, while the wall induces an external…
We have studied the breakup and subsequent fluid flow in very thin films of partially wetting liquid on solid substrates, using molecular dynamics simulations. The liquid is made of short chain molecules interacting with Lennard-Jones…
Soft membranes are commonly employed in shape-morphing applications, where the material is programmed to achieve a target shape upon activation by an external trigger, and as coating layers that alter the surface characteristics of bulk…
We discuss the effect of an external electric field on the wetting of a solid surface by liquid. To this end, we use a model of the two-level-atom fluid for which the changes in interatomic interactions due to the presence of the field can…
In multicellular systems, adhesion complexes, such as those composed of E-cadherin and associated catenins, mechanically couple neighboring cells by directly linking their actin-based cytoskeletal assemblies. However, the mechanics of how…
Epithelial cell monolayers show remarkable displacement and velocity correlations over distances of ten or more cell sizes that are reminiscent of supercooled liquids and active nematics. We show that many observed features can be described…
Active force generation by actin-myosin cortex coupled to the cell membrane allows the cell to deform, respond to the environment, and mediate cell motility and division. Several membrane-bound activator proteins move along it and couple to…
In the classic theory of solid adhesion, surface energy drives deformation to increase contact area while bulk elasticity opposes it. Recently, solid surface stress has been shown also to play an important role in opposing deformation of…
The collective behaviour of confluent cell sheets is strongly influenced both by polar forces, arising through cytoskeletal propulsion and by active inter-cellular forces, which are mediated by interactions across cell-cell junctions. We…
An approach to nonlinear dynamical modeling of interaction between conscious and automatic processes in the brain is proposed. Illustration of this approach on the nonlinear equation for the current density in the cortex is presented.…
We perform drainage experiments of a linear alkane fluid (n-hexadecane) down to molecular thicknesses, and focus on the role played by the confinement rate. We show that molecular layering is strongly influenced by the velocity at which the…