Related papers: Perspective: Geometrically-Frustrated Assemblies
Building structures with hierarchical order through the self-assembly of smaller blocks is not only a prerogative of nature, but also a strategy to design artificial materials with tailored functions. We explore in simulation the…
Many remarkably robust, rapid and spontaneous self-assembly phenomena in nature can be modeled geometrically starting from a collection of rigid bunches of spheres. This paper highlights the role of symmetry in sphere-based assembly…
We present a model for the joint self-assembly of amphiphilic polymers and small amphiphilic molecules (surfactants) in a dilute aqueous solution. The polymer is assumed to consist of a hydrophilic backbone and a large number of hydrophobic…
Due to the lack of long-range order, it remains challenging to characterize the structure of disordered solids and understand the nature of the glass transition. Here we propose a new structural order parameter by taking into account…
The tolerancing process links the virtual and the real worlds. From the former, tolerances define a variational geometrical language (geometric parameters). From the latter, there are values limiting those parameters. The beginning of a…
While static equilibria of flexible strings subject to various load types (gravity, hydrostatic pressure, Newtonian wind) is well understood textbook material, the combinations of the very same loads can give rise to complex spatial…
Mechanical metamaterials, whose unique mechanical properties stem from their structural design rather than material constituents, are gaining popularity in engineering applications. In particular, recent advances in self-assembly techniques…
Dense systems of active matter exhibit highly dynamic collective motion characterized by intermingled vortices, referred to as active turbulence. The interaction between these vortices is key to controlling turbulent dynamics, and a…
The idea of charge frustration is applied to describe the properties of such diverse physical systems as oil-water-surfactant mixtures and metal-ammonia solutions. The minimalist charge-frustrated model possesses one energy scale and two…
Many solid materials and liquid crystals exhibit geometric frustration, meaning that they have an ideal local structure that cannot fill up space. For that reason, the global phase must be a compromise between the ideal local structure and…
Biomolecular condensates self-assemble when proteins and nucleic acids spontaneously demix to form droplets within the crowded intracellular milieu. This simple mechanism underlies the formation of a wide variety of membraneless…
We present a simple physical model which demonstrates that the native state folds of proteins can emerge on the basis of considerations of geometry and symmetry. We show that the inherent anisotropy of a chain molecule, the geometrical and…
Molecular self-assembly on surfaces constitutes a powerful method for creating tailor-made surface structures with dedicated functionalities. Varying the intermolecular interactions allows for tuning the resulting molecular structures in a…
Haptic-assisted virtual assembly and prototyping has seen significant attention over the past two decades. However, in spite of the appealing prospects, its adoption has been slower than expected. We identify the main roadblocks as the…
The elastic coupling between plastic events is generally invoked to interpret plastic properties and failure of amorphous soft glassy materials. We report an experiment where the emergence of a self-organized plastic flow is observed well…
The impact of confinement on self-assembly of particles interacting with short-range attraction and long-range repulsion (SALR) potential is studied for thermodynamic states corresponding to local ordering of clusters or layers in the bulk.…
Fracture processes in heterogeneous materials comprise a large number of disordered spatial degrees of freedom, representing the dynamical state of a sample over the entire domain of interest. This complexity is usually modeled directly,…
This is an invited commentary on "Geometrically incompatible confinement of solids", B. Davidovitch, Y. Sun and G. M. Grason (PNAS, doi:10.1073/pnas.1815507116 , arxiv:1809.06919).
The evolution of occupied volume under progressive fragmentation of granular matter is studied using a purely geometric model. Rather than modelling disorder directly, properties are investigated by analysing highly ordered reference…
We demonstrate both numerically and experimentally that geometric frustration in two-dimensional periodic acoustic networks consisting of arrays of narrow air channels can be harnessed to form band gaps (ranges of frequency in which the…