Related papers: Casimir stresses in active nematic films
Unwanted stiction in micro- and nanomechanical (NEMS/MEMS) systems due to dispersion (van der Waals, or Casimir) forces is a significant hurdle in the fabrication of systems with moving parts on these length scales. Introducing a suitably…
The behavior of a thin film of nematic liquid crystal with unequal Frank constants is discussed. Distinct Frank constants are found to imply unequal core energies for $+1/2$ and $-1/2$ disclinations. Even so, a topological constraint is…
Investigations of the elastic behavior of bulk elastomers have traditionally proceeded on the basis of classical rubber elasticity, which regards chains as thermally fluctuating but disregards the thermal fluctuations of the cross-links.…
The Casimir-Polder force is analyzed when an atom is moving at a constant velocity relative to a collection of translationally invariant macroscopic bodies with generic shapes and compositions. The interaction is described within an…
We study the viscoelasticity of an active solution of polar biofilaments and motor proteins. Using a molecular model, we derive the constitutive equations for the stress tensor in the isotropic phase and in phases with liquid crystalline…
Free interfaces of liquid crystals tend to minimise both capillarity and anchoring forces. Here we study nematic films in planar and radial geometries with antagonistic anchoring boundary conditions and one deformable interface. Assuming a…
We consider the problem of modeling of interaction of thin material films with fields of quantum electrodynamics. Taking into account the basic principles of quantum electrodynamics (locality, gauge invariance, renormalizability) we…
We analyze the thermodynamic Casimir effect in strongly anizotropic systems from the vectorial $N\to\infty$ class in a slab geometry. Employing the imperfect (mean-field) Bose gas as a representative example, we demonstrate the key role of…
In vivo and in vitro systems of cells and extra-cellular matrix (ECM) systems are well known to form ordered patterns of orientationally aligned fibers. Here, we interpret them as active analogs of the (disordered) isotropic to the…
We study fluctuation-induced interaction in confined fluids above the isotropic-lamellar transition. At an ideal continuous transition, the disjoining pressure has the asymptotic form $\Pi(d\to\infty)\approx -C k_BT q_0^2/d$, where $d$ is…
The confinement of long-ranged critical fluctuations in the vicinity of second-order phase transitions in fluids generates critical Casimir forces acting on confining surfaces or among particles immersed in a critical solvent. This is…
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…
We propose an approach for investigation of interaction of thin material films with quantum electrodynamic fields. Using main principles of quantum electrodynamics (locality, gauge invariance, renormalizability) we construct a single model…
Randomly disordered (polydomain) liquid crystalline elastomers align under stress. We study the dynamics of stress relaxation before, during and after the Polydomain-Monodomain transition. The results for different materials show the…
The Casimir force between a pair of parallell plates filled with ionic particles is considered. We use a statistical mechanical approach and consider the classical high temperature limit. In this limit the ideal metal result with no…
Active materials are capable of converting free energy into directional motion, giving rise to striking dynamical phenomena. Developing a general understanding of their structure in relation to the underlying non-equilibrium physics would…
The elastic and capillary interactions between a pair of colloidal particles trapped on top of a nematic film are studied theoretically for large separations $d$. The elastic interaction is repulsive and of quadrupolar type, varying as…
Active materials are those in which individual, uncoordinated local stresses drive the material out of equilibrium on a global scale. Examples of such assemblies can be seen across scales from schools of fish to the cellular cytoskeleton…
Liquids in systems with spherically symmetric interactions are not thermodynamically stable when the range of the attraction is reduced sufficiently. However, these metastable liquids have lifetimes long enough that they are readily…
Puzzles are still preventing people from further understanding and manipulating the Casimir interaction in spherical systems. Here we investigate the behaviors of Casimir stresses in the system consisting of a ball immersed in the…