Related papers: Membrane stress and torque induced by Frank's nema…
We numerically study an anisotropic shape transformation of membranes under external forces for two-dimensional triangulated surfaces on the basis of Finsler geometry. The Finsler metric is defined by using a vector field, which is the…
We stabilize nematic droplets with handles against surface-tension-driven instabilities using a yield-stress material as outer fluid and study the complex nematic textures and defect structures that result from the competition between…
Surface-induced profiles of both nematic and smectic order parameters in a nematic liquid crystal, ranging from an orienting substrate to "infinity", were evaluated numerically on base of an extended Landau theory. In order to obtain a…
Chromonic liquid crystals (CLCs) are lyotropic materials which are attracting growing interest for their adaptability to living systems. A considerable body of works has been devoted to exploring their properties and applications. In this…
We study the shapes of elastic membranes under the simultaneous exertion of tensile and compressive forces when the translational symmetry along the tension direction is broken. We predict a multitude of novel morphological phases in…
A continuum mechanical framework is developed for determining a) the class of stress-free deformed shapes and corresponding director distributions on the undeformed configuration of a nematic glass membrane that has a prescribed spontaneous…
This study examines the stability of a flexible material interface between two fluids of the same viscosity in interaction with a free surface. When the layers are motionless, we provide evidence for the onset of a novel instability by…
The stochastic dynamics of inclusions in a randomly fluctuating biomembrane is simulated. These inclusions can represent the embedded proteins and the external particles arriving at a cell membrane. The energetics of the biomembrane is…
In liquid-crystalline elastomers, the nematic order parameter and the induced strain vary smoothly across the isotropic-nematic transition, without the expected first-order discontinuity. To investigate this smooth variation, we measure the…
We present Monte Carlo simulations of liquid-crystalline material confined to a nanoscopic slit-pore. The simulations are carried out under isothermal conditions in a specialized isostress ensemble in which N fluid molecules are exposed to…
The generation of action potential brings into play specific mechanosensory stimuli manifest in the variation of membrane capacitance, resulting from the selective membrane permeability to ions exchanges and testifying to the central role…
Induced by proteins within the cell membrane or by differential growth, heating, or swelling, spontaneous curvatures can drastically affect the morphology of thin bodies and induce mechanical instabilities. Yet, the interaction of…
Within the framework of Landau-de Gennes theory for nematic liquid crystals, we study the temperature-induced isotropic-nematic phase transition on a spherical shell. Below a critical temperature, a thin layer of nematic coating a…
We investigate the tight packing of nematic polymers inside a confining hard sphere. We model the polymer {\sl via} the continuum Frank elastic free energy augmented by a simple density dependent part as well as by taking proper care of the…
Motivated by the mechanics of dynamin-mediated membrane tube fission we analyse the stability of fluid membrane tubes subjected to shear flow in azimuthal direction. We find a novel helical instability driven by the membrane shear flow…
Living systems are chiral on multiple scales, from constituent biopolymers to large scale morphology, and their active mechanics is both driven by chiral components and serves to generate chiral morphologies. We describe the mechanics of…
The assembly of banana-shaped rodlike proteins on membranes, and the associated membrane shape transformations, are investigated by analytical theory and coarse-grained simulations. The membrane-mediated interactions between two…
We study the necking dynamics of a filament of complex fluid or soft solid in uniaxial tensile stretching at constant imposed Hencky strain rate $\dot\varepsilon$, by means of linear stability analysis and nonlinear (slender filament)…
Soft interfaces can mediate interactions between particles bound to them. The force transmitted through the surface geometry on a particle may be expressed as a closed line integral of the surface stress tensor around that particle. This…
Recent experiments and numerical studies have drawn attention to the dynamics of active nematics. Two-dimensional active nematics flow spontaneously and exhibit spatiotemporal chaotic flows with proliferation of topological defects in the…