Related papers: Surface melting and crystallisation driven by sedi…
We combine experiments and simulations to study the link between criticality and gelation in sticky spheres. We employ confocal microscopy to image colloid-polymer mixtures, and Monte Carlo simulations of the square-well (SW) potential as a…
The dynamics of a system composed of inelastic hard spheres or disks that are confined between two parallel vertically vibrating walls is studied (the vertical direction is defined as the direction perpendicular to the walls). The distance…
Driven granular systems readily form glassy phases at high particle volume fractions and low driving amplitudes. We use computer simulations of a driven granular glass to evidence a re-entrance melting transition into a fluid state, which,…
The kinetic mechanisms underlying bottom-up assembly of colloidal particles have been widely investigated in efforts to control crystallization pathways and to direct growth into targeted superstructures for applications including photonic…
Colloidal gels have strong industrial relevance as they can behave liquid- and solid-like. The latter allows them to support the buoyant weight against gravity. However, the system is intrinsically out-of-equilibrium, which means that the…
Dating from experiments more than 20 years ago, it has been realized that the crystallization of hard colloidal particles in the vicinity of dynamical arrest has several anomalies, that render the conventional nucleation and growth model…
We present an experimental study of the statistical properties of millimeter-size spheres floating on the surface of a turbulent flow. The flow is generated in a layer of liquid metal by an electromagnetic forcing. By using two magnet…
Structural rearrangement of polystyrene colloidal crystals under dry sintering conditions has been revealed by in situ grazing incidence X-ray scattering. Measured diffraction patterns were analysed using distorted wave Born approximation…
The structure of stellar atmospheres can be modified if they include embedded diverging magnetic fields. This is due to the presence of speed filters. Here we examine some of the relevant effects through the numerical simulation of the…
Confining a colloidal crystal within a long narrow channel produced by two parallel walls can be used to impose a meso-scale superstructure of a predominantly mechanical elastic character [Chui et al., EPL 2008, 83, 58004]. When the crystal…
Understanding the mechanical response and failure of solids is of obvious importance in their use as structural materials. The nature of plastic deformation leading to yielding of amorphous solids has been vigorously pursued in recent…
We study the liquid-solid transition in a collection of interacting particles moving through a dissipative medium under the action of a constant, spatially uniform external force, e.g. a charge-stabilized suspension in a fluidized bed or a…
When soft matter is driven out of equilibrium its constituents interact via effective interactions that escape Newton's action-reaction principle. Prominent examples include the hydrodynamic interactions between colloidal particles driven…
We report an experimental investigation of the transition from a hexagonally ordered solid phase to a disordered liquid in a monolayer of vibrated spheres. The transition occurs as the intensity of the vibration amplitude is increased.…
We investigate properties of dense suspensions and sediments of small spherical silt particles by means of a combined Molecular Dynamics (MD) and Stochastic Rotation Dynamics (SRD) simulation. We include van der Waals and effective…
We carry out a coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulation of phospholipid vesicles with transmembrane proteins. We measure the mean and Gaussian curvatures of our protein-embedded vesicles and quantitatively show how protein clusters…
As one increases the concentration of a colloidal suspension, the system exhibits a dramatic increase in viscosity. Structurally, the system resembles a liquid, yet motions within the suspension are slow enough that it can be considered…
The influence of an underlying carrier flow on the terminal velocity of sedimenting particles is investigated both analytically and numerically. Our theoretical framework works for a general class of (laminar or turbulent) velocity fields…
We study melting in a two-dimensional system of classical particles with Gaussian-core interactions in disordered environments. The pure system validates the conventional two-step melting with a hexatic phase intervening between the solid…
A wide range of disordered materials, from biological to geological assemblies, feature discrete elements undergoing large shape changes. How significant geometrical variations at the microscopic scale affect the response of the assembly,…