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Natural and synthetic multi-component gels display emergent properties, which implies that they are more than just the sum of their components. This warrants the investigation of the role played by inter-species interactions in shaping gel…
Plasticity in zirconium alloys is mainly controlled by the interaction of 1/3 1210 screw dislocations with oxygen atoms in interstitial octahedral sites of the hexagonal close-packed lattice. This process is studied here using ab initio…
We study the dynamics of a kink in a one-lane asymmetric simple exclusion process with detachment and attachment of the particle at arbitrary sites. For a system with one site of detachment and attachment we find that the kink is trapped by…
The mechanism of delocalization of two-dimensional Dirac fermions with random mass is investigated, using a superfield representation. Although localization effects are very strong, one fermion component can delocalize due to the…
We show that when an individual particle is dragged through an assembly of other particles in the presence of quenched disorder, a viscous decoupling transition occurs between the dragged particle and the surrounding particles which is…
Recently, tribologists have shown increasing interest in rate-dependent phenomena occurring in viscoelastic fractures. However, in some cases, conflicting results are obtained despite the use of similar theoretical models. For this reason,…
We consider an interaction of charged bodies under the following simplified conditions: the distribution of charge over each body is stable; the interaction of bodies is governed by electrical forces only. Physically, these assumptions can…
We simulate a two dimensional model of self-propelled particles confined by a deformable boundary. The particles tend to accumulate near the boundary and the shape of the boundary deforms upon the collisions. We find that there are two…
The nature of physical processes can depend substantially on the dimensionality of a system. One such example are buckling instabilities, which arise from the competition between axial compression and bending in elastic filaments. Thus,…
Chameleons are able to capture very large preys by projecting the tongue and retracting it once it is in contact with preys. A strong adhesion between the tongue tip and the prey is therefore required during the retraction phase to ensure a…
Cohesive granular materials such as wet sand, snow, and powders can flow like a viscous liquid. However, the elementary mechanisms of momentum transport in such athermal particulate fluids are elusive. As a result, existing models for…
Bilayer vesicles form readily from mixtures of charged and neutral surfactants. When such a mixed vesicle binds an oppositely-charged object, its membrane partially demixes: the adhesion zone recruits more charged surfactants from the rest…
Collective behavior is all around us, from flocks of birds to schools of fish. These systems are immensely complex, which makes it pertinent to study their behavior through minimal models. We introduce such a minimal model for cohesive and…
Soft particles can be better emulsifiers than hard particles because they stretch at fluid interfaces. This deformation can increase adsorption energies by orders of magnitude relative to rigid particles. The deformation of a particle at an…
A rigid cylinder placed on a soft gel deforms its surface. When multiple cylinders are placed on the surface, they interact with each other via the topography of the deformed gel which serves as an energy landscape; as they move, the…
We give a pedagogical introduction to the process of decoherence - the irreversible emergence of classical properties through interaction with the environment. After discussing the general concepts, we present the following examples:…
Dry adhesives rely on short-ranged intermolecular bonds, hence requiring a low elastic modulus to conform to the surface roughness of the adhered material. Under external loads, however, soft adhesives accumulate strain energy, which…
Multi-material lightweight designs, e.g. the combination of aluminum with fiber-reinforced composites, are a key feature for the development of innovative and resource-efficient products. The connection properties of such bi-material…
We investigate a driven diffusive lattice gas model with two oppositely moving species of particles. The model is motivated by bi-directional traffic of ants on a pre-existing trail. A third species, corresponding to pheromones used by the…
Locomotion is a prime example for adaptive behavior in animals and biological control principles have inspired control architectures for legged robots. While machine learning has been successfully applied to many tasks in recent years, Deep…