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Biological macromolecules have complex and non-trivial energy landscapes, endowing them a unique conformational adaptability and diversity in function. Hence, understanding the processes of elasticity and dissipation at the nanoscale is…
In the cell, proteins fold and perform complex functions through global structural rearrangements. Function requires a protein to be at the brink of stability to be susceptible to small environmental fluctuations, yet stable enough to…
Large-scale simulations of thermal welding of polymers are performed to investigate the rise of mechanical strength at the polymer-polymer interface with the welding time. The welding process is in the core of integrating polymeric elements…
We study the asymptotic decay of the Friedel density oscillations induced by an open boundary in a one-dimensional chain of lattice fermions with a short-range two-particle interaction. From Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid theory it is known that…
The mechanics of disordered fibrous networks such as those that make up the extracellular matrix are strongly dependent on the local connectivity or coordination number. For biopolymer networks this coordination number is typically between…
Biological polymers, such as intrinsically disordered proteins, play a central role in cellular biology, including mediating phase separation and controlling activity of biological condensates. The physical properties and functions of…
The transition from globular to elongated states of biopolymers in shear flow occurs at a distinct critical shear rate, $\dot{\gamma }^{*}$. The magnitude of $\dot{\gamma }^{*}$ depends on the internal potential and the polymer length. For…
We consider a linear polymer chain in a disordered environment modeled by percolation clusters on a square lattice. The disordered environment is meant to roughly represent molecular crowding as seen in cells. The model may be viewed as the…
We have simulated the motion of a bead subjected to a constant force while embedded in a network of semiflexible polymers which can represent actin filaments. We find that the bead displacement obeys the power law x ~ t^alfa. After the…
We consider a model of an extensible semiflexible filament moving in two dimensions on a motility assay of motor proteins represented explicitly as active harmonic linkers. Their heads bind stochastically to polymer segments within a…
We report measurements of the low temperature magnetization $M$ and specific heat $C$ as a function of temperature and magnetic field of the quasi-one-dimensional spin chain, heavy fermion compound YbFe$_5$P$_3$, which resides close to a…
We study the unfolding of a single polymer chain due to an external force. We use a simplified model which allows to perform all calculations in closed form without assuming a Boltzmann-Gibbs form for the equilibrium distribution.…
Since the report by Fietz and Webb (1968 Phys. Rev. 178 657), who considered the pinning force density, $|F_p| = |J_c \times B|$ (where $J_c$ is the critical current density and $B$ is applied magnetic field), in isotropic superconductors…
In this paper we study a two-dimensional directed self-avoiding walk model of a random copolymer in a random emulsion. The copolymer is a random concatenation of monomers of two types, $A$ and $B$, each occurring with density 1/2. The…
Extensive coarse grained molecular dynamics simulations are performed to investigate the conformational phase diagram of a neutral polymer in the presence of attractive crowders. We show that, for low crowded densities, the polymer…
Filler-polymer interactions are one of the keys to understanding the physical properties of polymer composites. These interactions give rise to an interface with specific properties that may have a nontrivial effect on the macroscopic…
Nanoparticles can greatly enhance the mechanical response of elastomeric polymers essential to a wide range of applications, yet their precise molecular mechanisms of high-strain reinforcement remain largely unresolved. Here we show, based…
We consider a single living semi-flexible filament with persistence length l_p in chemical equilibrium with a solution of free monomers at fixed monomer chemical potential mu_1 and fixed temperature T. While one end of the filament is…
We extend our earlier shear-transformation-zone (STZ) theory of amorphous plasticity to include the effects of thermally assisted molecular rearrangements. This version of our theory is a substantial revision and generalization of…
Anisotropic colloidal particles have the ability to self-assemble into cholesteric structures. We used molecular dynamics to simulate the self-assembly of ellipsoidal particles with the objective to establish a general framework to reveal…