Related papers: Understanding shape entropy through local dense pa…
We study here how phase transitions are induced in colloidal suspensions by a point-like heat source, an optically trapped metal oxide particle absorbing light. We find that thermophoresis increases the number density of colloids around the…
Since the 1920s, packing arguments have been used to rationalize crystal structures in systems ranging from atomic mixtures to colloidal crystals. Packing arguments have recently been applied to complex nanoparticle structures, where they…
We present a statistical mechanical description of randomly packed spherical particles, where the average coordination number is treated as a macroscopic thermodynamic variable. The overall packing entropy is shown to have two…
Highly excited many-particle states in quantum systems such as nuclei, atoms, quantum dots, spin systems, quantum computers etc., can be considered as ``chaotic'' superpositions of mean-field basis states (Slater determinants, products of…
We present a systematic overview of granular deposits composed of ellipsoidal particles with different particle shapes and size polydispersities. We study the density and anisotropy of such deposits as functions of size polydispersity and…
Active colloids belong to a class of non-equilibrium systems where energy uptake, conversion and dissipation occurs at the level of individual colloidal particles, which can lead to particles self-propelled motion and surprising collective…
We present a scaled particle density functional study of two-dimensional binary mixtures of hard convex particles with one or both species being ellipses. In particular, we divide our study into two parts. The first part is devoted to the…
Self-organization creates new order and shifts sub-boundaries while reorganizing energy and entropy within a control volume. This article examines pathway selection and tests whether maximizing the entropy generation rate can forecast…
Shape anisotropy of colloidal nanoparticles has emerged as an important design variable for engineering assemblies with targeted structure and properties. In particular, a number of polyhedral nanoparticles have been shown to exhibit a rich…
Understanding and manipulating the interactions between foreign bodies and cell membranes during endo- and phagocytosis is of paramount importance, not only for the fate of living cells but also for numerous biomedical applications. This…
We review the depinning and nonequilibrium phases of collectively interacting particle systems driven over random or periodic substrates. This type of system is relevant to vortices in type-II superconductors, sliding charge density waves,…
We study the collective dynamics of repulsive self-propelled particles. The particles are governed by coupled equations of motion that include polar self-propulsion, damping of velocity and of polarity, repulsive particle-particle…
Purely entropic systems such as suspensions of hard rods, platelets and spheres show rich phase behavior. Rods and platelets have successfully been used as models to predict the equilibrium properties of liquid crystals for several decades.…
An array of spheres descending slowly through a viscous fluid always clumps [J.M. Crowley, J. Fluid Mech. {\bf 45}, 151 (1971)]. We show that anisotropic particle shape qualitatively transforms this iconic instability of collective…
Small particles transported by a fluid medium do not necessarily have to follow the flow. We show that for a wide class of time-periodic incompressible flows inertial particles have a tendency to spontaneously align in one-dimensional…
We consider the driven dynamics of a probe particle moving through an assembly of particles with competing long-range repulsive and short-range attractive interactions, which form crystal, stripe, labyrinth, and bubble states as the ratio…
This letter seeks to illuminate the profound connection between complexity, self-organization, emergent behaviour, pattern formation, and entropy concepts that are foundational to understanding our universe. By examining these ideas through…
We use numerical simulations to understand how random deviations from the ideal spherical shape affect the ability of hard particles to form fcc crystalline structures. Using a system of hard spheres as a reference, we determine the…
Particles with directional interactions are promising building blocks for new functional materials and may serve as models for biological structures. Mutually attractive nanoparticles that are deformable due to flexible surface groups, for…
Entropic self-assembly is governed by the shape of the constituent particles, yet a priori prediction of crystal structures from particle shape alone is non-trivial for anything but the simplest of space-filling shapes. At the same time,…