Related papers: Self-assembly at a nonequilibrium critical point
By analytically solving some simple models of phase-ordering kinetics, we suggest a mechanism for the onset of non-equilibrium behaviour in colloid-polymer mixtures. These mixtures can function as models of atomic systems; their physics…
Self-assembly and force generation are two central processes in biological systems that usually are considered in separation. However, the signals that activate non-muscle myosin II molecular motors simultaneously lead to self-assembly into…
The design space for a self-assembled multicomponent objects ranges from a solution in which every building block is unique to one with the minimum number of distinct building blocks that unambiguously define the target structure. Using a…
Cyanobacteria sequester photosynthetic enzymes into microcompartments which facilitate the conversion of carbon dioxide into sugars. Geometric similarities between these structures and self-assembling viral capsids have inspired models that…
We study the growth of slip line in a plastically deforming crystal by numerical simulation of a double-ended pile-up model with a dislocation source at one end, and an absorbing wall at the other end. In presence of defects, the pile-up…
Understanding the phase behavior of mixtures with many components is important in many contexts, including as a key step toward a physics-based description of intracellular compartmentalization. Here, we study the instabilities of a mixture…
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 demonstrate particle clustering on macroscopic scales in a coupled nonequilibrium system where two species of particles are advected by a fluctuating landscape and modify the landscape in the process. The phase diagram generated by…
Theories of protein crystallization based on spheres that form close-packed crystals predict optimal assembly within a `slot' of second virial coefficients and enhanced assembly near the metastable liquid-vapor critical point. However, most…
Understanding the role of solute diffusivities in equilibrium tie-line selection during growth of a second phase in ternary and higher multicomponent two phase alloys is an important problem due to the strong dependence of mechanical…
Self-assembly kinetics is usually described by approaches which assume that the shape of the aggregates has a definite form (e.g., spherical, cylindrical, cubic, etc), however that is unlikely to be the case in many finite-sized…
A series of simulations aimed at elucidating the self-assembly dynamics of spherical virus capsids is described. This little-understood phenomenon is a fascinating example of the complex processes that occur in the simplest of organisms.…
A simple two dimensional model of a phase growing on a substrate is introduced. The model is characterized by an adsorption rate q, and a desorption rate p. It exhibits a wetting transition which may be viewed as an unbinding transition of…
Using large deviation theory and principles of stochastic optimal control, we show that rare molecular dynamics trajectories conditioned on assembling a specific target structure encode a set of interactions and external forces that lead to…
Dynamical symmetries are of considerable importance in elucidating the complex behaviour of strongly interacting systems with many degrees of freedom. Paradigmatic examples are cooperative phenomena as they arise in phase transitions, where…
We study the non-equilibrium dynamics (purely dissipative and relaxational) in a semi-infinite system following a quench from the high temperature disordered phase to its critical temperature. We show that the local autocorrelation near the…
Using kinetic Monte Carlo simulations, we show that molecular morphologies found in non-equilibrium growth can be strongly different from those at equilibrium. We study the prototypical hybrid inorganic-organic system 6P on ZnO(10-10)…
We review models of compositional growth, which were introduced to explain the growth statistics of various quantities ranging from firm sizes to GDP. In these models, entities are decomposed into units that grow independently. Thus, the…
Understanding non-equilibrium phenomena, such as growth, and connecting them to equilibrium phase behavior is a major challenge, in particular for complex multicomponent materials. We use X-ray reflectivity to determine the surface…
A biologically motivated model for spatio-temporal coexistence of two competing species is studied by mean-field theory and numerical simulations. In d>1 dimensions the phase diagram displays an extended region where both species coexist,…