Related papers: Corners in soft solids behave as defects in crysta…
It is shown that the elastic energy far from a point defect in an isotropic solid is mainly shear elastic energy. The calculation, which is based on a standard dipole expansion, shows that no matter how large or small the bulk modulus is…
Surface properties of mixtures of charged platelike colloids and salt in contact with a charged planar wall are studied within density functional theory. The particles are modeled by hard cuboids with their edges constrained to be parallel…
Current quadratic smoothness energies for curved surfaces either exhibit distortions near the boundary due to zero Neumann boundary conditions, or they do not correctly account for intrinsic curvature, which leads to unnatural-looking…
Surface energy is a fundamental property of materials and is particularly important in describing nanomaterials where atoms or molecules at the surface constitute a large fraction of the material. Traditionally, surface energy is considered…
We consider the shape of crystals which are soft in the sense that their elastic modulus $\mu$ is small compared to their surface tension $\gamma$, more precisely $ \mu a < \gamma$ where $a$ is the lattice spacing. We show that their…
The equilibrium shape of crystals is a fundamental property of both aesthetic appeal and practical import. It is also a visible macro-manifestation of the underlying atomic-scale forces and chemical makeup, most conspicuous in…
The surface free energy, or surface tension, of a liquid interface gives rise to a pressure jump when the interface is curved. Here we show that a similar capillary pressure arises at the interface of soft solids. We present experimental…
The surface free energy of ideal hard rods near curved hard surfaces is determined to second order in curvature for surfaces of general shape. In accordance with previous results for spherical and cylindrical surfaces it is found that this…
Liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs) are soft phase-changing solids that exhibit large reversible contractions upon heating, Goldstone-like soft modes and resultant microstructural instabilities. We heat a planar LCE slab to isotropic, clamp…
Magnetic nanoparticles with Neel surface anisotropy, different internal structures, surface arrangements and elongation are modelled as many-spin systems. The results suggest that the energy of many-spin nanoparticles cut from cubic…
We consider the wetting transition on a planar surface in contact with a semi-infinite fluid. In the classical approach, the surface is assumed to be solid, and when interaction between solid and fluid is sufficiently short-range, the…
Relations between particle and wave properties for charge carriers in periodic potentials of crystalline metals and semiconductors are derived. The particle aspects of electrons and holes in periodic potentials are considered using…
Recent progress in the understanding of the effect of electrostatics in soft matter is presented. A vast amount of materials contains ions ranging from the molecular scale (e.g., electrolyte) to the meso/macroscopic one (e.g., charged…
We consider nematic liquid crystals in a bounded, convex polyhedron described by a director field n(r) subject to tangent boundary conditions. We derive lower bounds for the one-constant elastic energy in terms of topological invariants.…
We prove a homogenization result for Mumford-Shah-type energies associated to a brittle composite material with weak inclusions distributed periodically at a scale ${\varepsilon}>0$. The matrix and the inclusions in the material have the…
Surface stress and surface energy are two fundamental parameters that determine the surface properties of any materials. While it is commonly believed that the surface stress and surface energy of liquids are identical, the relationship…
Young's law fails on soft solid and liquid substrates where there are substantial deformations near the contact line. On liquid substrates, this is captured by Neumann's classic analysis, which provides a geometrical construction for…
Functionals involving surface curvature are important across a range of scientific disciplines, and their extrema are representative of physically meaningful objects such as atomic lattices and biomembranes. Inspired in particular by the…
Liquid crystal elastomers are rubber-like solids with liquid crystalline mesogens (stiff, rod-like molecules) incorporated either into the main chain or as a side chain of the polymer. These solids display a range of unusual…
We derive the energy of the surface between the normal and superfluid components of a mixed phase of a system composed of two particle species with different densities. The surface energy is obtained by the integration of the free energy…