Related papers: The structure and dynamics of self-assembling coll…
Using laser tweezers and fluorescence confocal polarizing microscopy, we study colloidal interactions of solid microspheres in the nematic bulk caused by elastic distortions around the particles with strong tangential surface anchoring. The…
We study dynamics of clustering in systems containing active particles that are immersed in an explicit solvent. For this purpose we have adopted a hybrid simulation method, consisting of molecular dynamics and multi-particle collision…
Biological and robotic systems often operate in confined environments where material must be gathered without centralized control. Inspired by the effective collection strategies of aquatic worms (Lumbriculus variegatus and Tubifex…
From microscopic fluid clusters to macroscopic droplets, the structure of fluids is governed by the Van der Waals force, a force that acts between polarizable objects. In this Letter, we derive a general theory that describes the…
Flow-induced aggregation of colloidal particles leads to aggregates with fairly high fractal dimension () which are directly responsible for the observed rheological properties of sheared dispersions. We address the problem of the decrease…
When tiny soft ferromagnetic particles are placed along a liquid interface and exposed to a vertical magnetic field, the balance between capillary attraction and magnetic repulsion leads to self-organization into well-defined patterns.…
We study the assembly into a gel network of colloidal particles, via effective interactions that yield local rigidity and make dilute network structures mechanically stable. The self-assembly process can be described by a Flory-Huggins…
Like emulsions, pastes and many other forms of soft condensed matter, aqueous foams present slow mechanical relaxations when subjected to a stress too small to induce any plastic flow. To identify the physical origin of this viscoelastic…
A method to couple interparticle contact models with Stokesian dynamics (SD) is introduced to simulate colloidal aggregates under flow conditions. The contact model mimics both the elastic and plastic behavior of the cohesive connections…
We study gelation in suspensions of model colloidal particles with short-ranged attractive and long-ranged repulsive interactions by means of three-dimensional fluorescence confocal microscopy. At low packing fractions, particles form…
We study the appearance of large-scale dynamical heterogeneities in a simplified model of a driven, dissipative granular system. Simulations of steady-state gravity-driven flows of inelastically colliding hard disks show the formation of…
In micro-swimmer suspensions locomotion necessarily generates fluid motion, and it is known that such flows can lead to collective behavior from unbiased swimming. We examine the complementary problem of how chemotaxis is affected by…
Active networks made of biopolymers and motor proteins are valuable bioinspired systems that have been used in the last decades to study the cytoskeleton and its self-organization under mechanical stimulation. Different techniques are…
We consider a suspension of active rigid particles (swimmers) in a steady Stokes flow, where particles are distributed according to a stationary ergodic random process, and we study its homogenization in the macroscopic limit. A key point…
We study the dynamics of proliferating cell collectives whose microscopic constituents' growth is inhibited by macroscopic growth-induced stress. Discrete particle simulations of a growing collective show the emergence of concentric-ring…
We use computer simulations to study a model, first proposed by Wales [1], for the reversible and monodisperse self-assembly of simple icosahedral virus capsid structures. The success and efficiency of assembly as a function of…
We study the formation of bands of colloidal particles driven by periodic external fields. Using Brownian dynamics, we determine the dependence of the band width on the strength of the particle interactions and on the intensity and…
Colloidal systems present exciting opportunities to study clusters. Unlike atomic clusters, which are frequently produced at extremely low density, colloidal clusters may interact with one another. Here we consider the effect of such…
Active bodies in viscous fluids interact hydrodynamically through self-generated flows. Here we study spontaneous aggregation induced by hydrodynamic flow in a suspension of stiff, apolar, active filaments. Lateral hydrodynamic attractions…
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…