Related papers: Cohesion-decohesion asymmetry in geckos

Many kinds of adult Lepidoptera insects possess a long proboscis which is used to suck liquids and has the coiling and uncoiling movements. Although experiments revealed qualitatively that the coiling movement is governed by the hydraulic…

We study two closely related, nonlinear models of a viscoplastic solid. These models capture essential features of plasticity over a wide range of strain rates and applied stresses. They exhibit inelastic strain relaxation and steady flow…

We study numerically local models for the mechanical contact between two solids with rough surfaces. When the solids softly touch either through adhesion or by a small normal load $L$, contact only forms at isolated patches and fluids can…

An improved linear model is developed for elasto-plastic and adhesive contact. New correlations are proposed and validated to estimate the key input parameters of the model, including contact stiffness, yield point, maximum pull-off force…

Understanding the mechanisms of species coexistence has always been a fundamental topic in ecology. Classical theory predicts that interspecific competition may select for traits that stabilize niche differences, although recent work shows…

Mechanical interactions between biological cells may be mediated by secreted products, making them dependent on the local particle density. Here, we explore the generic physics of density-dependent attractive interactions. We show using…

Viscoelasticity is well known to cause significant hysteresis of crack closure and opening when an elastomer is brought in and out of contact with a flat, rigid, adhesive counterface. A separate origin of adhesive hysteresis is small-scale,…

When particles move at a constant speed and have the tendency to align their directions of motion, ordered large scale movement can emerge despite significant levels of noise. Many variants of this model of self-propelled particles have…

Birds, bats and many insects can tuck their wings against their bodies at rest and deploy them to power flight. Whereas birds and bats use well-developed pectoral and wing muscles and tendons, how insects control these movements remains…

Movement in biology is often achieved with distributed control of coupled subcomponents, e.g. muscles and limbs. Coupling could range from weak and local, i.e. decentralized, to strong and global, i.e. centralized. We developed a model-free…

Measuring atomic and molecular interactions was one of the main objectives of physics during the past century. It was an essential step not only in itself but because most macroscopic properties can be derived once one knows interaction…

The 2-step staggered (also called leap-frog) time discretisation of linear 2nd-order Hamiltonian systems (typically linear elastodynamics in a stress-velocity form) is extended for a 3-step staggered discretisation applicable for systems…

We study the mechanics and statistical physics of dislocations interacting on cylinders, motivated by the elongation of rod-shaped bacterial cell walls and cylindrical assemblies of colloidal particles subject to external stresses. The…

We present a single, unified, multi-scale model to study the attachment\detachment dynamics of two deforming, near spherical cells, coated with binding ligands and subject to a slow, homogeneous shear flow in a viscous fluid medium. The…

We study the evolution of a system of two qubits, each of which interacts locally with a spin chain with nontrivial internal Hamiltonian. We present an exact solution to this problem and analyze the dependence of decoherence on the distance…

A linkage mechanism consists of rigid bodies assembled by joints which can be used to translate and transfer motion from one form in one place to another. In this paper, we are particularly interested in a family of spacial linkage…

Adhesive cell-substrate interactions are crucial for cell motility and are responsible for the necessary traction that propels cells. These interactions can also change the shape of the cell, analogous to liquid droplet wetting on adhesive…

A general model covering a large variety of the so-called adhesive or cohesive, possibly also frictional, contact interfaces between visco-elastic bodies with inertia considered in a thermodynamical context is presented. A semi-implicit…

We consider a model for the evolution of an interface in a heterogeneous environment governed by a parabolic equation. The heterogeneity is introduced as obstacles exerting a localized dry friction. Our main result establishes the emergence…

We examine an exactly solvable model of decoherence - a spin-system interacting with a collection of environment spins. We show that in this model (introduced some time ago to illustrate environment-induced superselection) generic…