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In multi-component soft matter, interface properties often play a key role in determining the properties of the overall system. The identification of the internal dynamic structures in non-equilibrium situations requires the interface…
The kinetics of the assembly of semiflexible filaments through end-to-end annealing is key to the structure of the cytoskeleton, but is not understood. We analyze this problem through scaling theory and simulations, and uncover a regime…
Motor proteins drive persistent motion and self-organisation of cytoskeletal filaments. However, state-of-the-art microscopy techniques and continuum modelling approaches focus on large length and time scales. Here, we perform…
Self-assembling, semi-flexible polymers are ubiquitous in biology and technology. However, there remain conflicting accounts of the equilibrium kinetics for such an important system. Here, by focusing on a dynamical description of a minimal…
We study theoretically the entropic elasticity of a semi-flexible polymer, such as DNA, confined to two dimensions. Using the worm-like-chain model we obtain an exact analytical expression for the partition function of the polymer pulled at…
In vitro reconstituted active systems, such as the ATP-driven microtubule bundle suspension developed by the Dogic group, provide a fertile testing ground for elucidating the phenomenology of active liquid crystalline states. Controlling…
We present a coarse-grained model for linear polymers with a tunable number of effective atoms (blobs) per chain interacting by intra- and inter-molecular potentials obtained at zero density. We show how this model is able to accurately…
Bundles of filamentous polymers are primary structural components of a broad range of cytoskeletal structures, and their mechanical properties play key roles in cellular functions ranging from locomotion to mechanotransduction and…
Biofilament-motor protein complexes are ubiquitous in biology and drive the transport of cargo vital for many fundamental cellular processes. As they move, motor proteins exert compressive forces on the filaments to which they are attached,…
Assuming Gaussian chain statistics along the chain contour, we generate by means of a proper fractal generator hyperbranched polymer trees which are marginally compact. Static and dynamical properties, such as the radial intrachain pair…
We study the behavior of a flexible polymer chain in the presence of a low-molecular weight solvent in the vicinity of a liquid-gas critical point within the framework of a self-consistent field theory. The total free energy of the dilute…
Using molecular dynamics simulations, we determine the linear and nonlinear viscoelastic properties of a model polymer melt in the unentangled regime. Several approaches are compared for the computation of linear moduli, including…
Entangled networks of stiff biopolymers exhibit complex dynamic response, emerging from the topological constraints that neighboring filaments impose upon each other. We propose a class of reference models for entanglement dynamics of stiff…
The non-equilibrium structural and dynamical properties of semiflexible polymers confined to two dimensions are investigated by molecular dynamics simulations. Three different scenarios are considered: The force-extension relation of…
The interplay of nematic order and phase separation in solutions of semiflexible polymers in solvents of variable quality is investigated by density functional theory (DFT) and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. We studied coarse-grained…
We study the dynamics of a polymer, described as a variant of a Rouse chain, driven by an active terminal monomer (head). The local active force induces a transition from a globule-like to an elongated state, as revealed by the study of the…
We consider a general discrete model for heterogeneous semiflexible polymer chains. Both the thermal noise and the inhomogeneous character of the chain (the disorder) are modeled in terms of random rotations. We focus on the quenched…
We present a new strategy for introducing population balances into full-chain constitutive models of living polymers with linear chain architectures. We provide equations to describe a range of stress relaxation processes covering both…
Polymer melts with chains undergoing reversible crosslinking have distinctively favorable dynamic properties, e.g., self healing and reprocessability. In these situations there are two relevant elementary time scales: the segmental and the…
We investigate the folding and forced-unbinding transitions of adsorbed semiflexible polymer chains using theory and simulations. These processes describe biologically relevant phenomena that include adhesive interactions between proteins…