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We present a novel, self-consistent and robust theoretical model to investigate elastic interactions between topological defects in liquid crystal shells. Accounting for the non-concentric nature of the shell in a simple manner, we are able…
Cell sorting, the segregation of cells with different properties into distinct domains, is a key phenomenon in biological processes such as embryogenesis. We use a phase-field model of a confluent cell layer to study the role of activity in…
Mechanical metamaterials are periodic lattice structures with complex unit cell architectures that can achieve extraordinary mechanical properties beyond the capability of bulk materials. A new class of metamaterials is proposed, whose…
Control on spatial location and density of defects in 2D materials can be achieved using electron beam irradiation. Conversely, ultralow accelerating voltages (less than or equal to 5kV) are used to measure surface morphology, with no…
A nematic liquid crystal confined to the surface of a sphere exhibits topological defects of total charge $+2$ due to the topological constraint. In equilibrium, the nematic field forms four $+1/2$ defects, located at the corners of a…
Using molecular dynamics simulations we study the thermodynamic behavior of a single-component covalent material described by the recently proposed Environment-Dependent Interatomic Potential (EDIP). The parameterization of EDIP for silicon…
Confined samples of liquid crystals are characterized by a variety of topological defects and can be exposed to external constraints such as extreme confinements with nontrivial topology. Here we explore the intrinsic structure of smectic…
Cells not only can be motile by crawling but are also capable of non-motility active motions like periodic contraction or pulsation. In this work, based on a Voronoi cell model, we show how this non-motility activity affects the structure,…
A detailed understanding of the interface between living cells and substrate materials is of rising importance in many fields of medicine, biology and biotechnology. Cells at interfaces often form epithelia. The physical barrier that they…
Imaging techniques are essential tools for inquiring a number of properties from different materials. Liquid crystals are often investigated via optical and image processing methods. In spite of that, considerably less attention has been…
Topological defects are crucial to the thermodynamics and structure of condensed matter systems. For instance, when incorporated into crystalline membranes like graphene, disclinations with positive and negative topological charge…
Many geologic materials have a composite structure, in which macroscopic mechanical behavior is determined by the properties, shape, and heterogeneous distribution of individual constituents. In particular, sedimentary rocks commonly…
Nanoparticles with hydrophobic capping ligands and amphiphilic phospholipids are both found to self-assemble into monolayer films when deposited on the air water interface. By separately measuring the anisotropic stress response of these…
We use numerical simulations to understand how random deviations from the ideal spherical shape affect the ability of hard particles to form fcc crystalline structures. Using a system of hard spheres as a reference, we determine the…
Lipid membranes form the barrier between the inside and outside of cells and many of their subcompartments. As such, they bind to a wide variety of nano- and micrometer sized objects and, in the presence of strong adhesive forces, strongly…
Morphological trends in growing colonies of living cells are at the core of physiological and evolutionary processes. Using active gel equations, which include cell division, we show that shape changes during the growth can be regulated by…
We have studied the pearling instability induced on hollow tubular lipid vesicles by hydrophilic polymers with hydrophobic side groups along the backbone. The results show that the polymer concentration is coupled to local membrane…
We present a hydrodynamic theory to describe shear flows in developing epithelial tissues. We introduce hydrodynamic fields corresponding to state properties of constituent cells as well as a contribution to overall tissue shear flow due to…
We demonstrate a novel method of introducing point defects (mono and di-vacancies) in a confined mono-layer colloidal crystal by manipulating individual particles with optical tweezers. Digital video microscopy is used to study defect…
Progress in electrochemical applications of ionic liquids builds on an understanding of electrical double-layer. This computational study focuses on structure-determined quantities -- maximum packing density, potentials and capacitances --…