Related papers: Structural and dynamical properties of gel network…
The nonlinear rheological properties of dense colloidal suspensions under steady shear are discussed within a first principles approach. It starts from the Smoluchowski equation of interacting Brownian particles in a given shear flow,…
One of the most interesting phenomena in the soft-matter realm consists in the spontaneous formation of super-molecular structures (microphases) in condition of thermodynamic equilibrium. A simple mechanism responsible for this…
The interplay between structure and dynamics in non-equilibrium steady-state is far from understood. We address this interplay by tracking Brownian Dynamics trajectories of particles in a binary colloid of opposite charges in an external…
The connection between domain relaxations at individual scales and the collective heterogeneous response in non-equilibrium systems is a topic of profound interest in recent times. In a model sys- tem of constantly driven oppositely charged…
The phase behavior of colloid-polymer mixtures, and of solutions of globular proteins, is often interpreted in terms of a simple model of hard spheres with short-ranged attraction. While such a model yields a qualitative understanding of…
We compare the slow dynamics of irreversible gels, colloidal gels, glasses and spin glasses by analyzing the behavior of the so called non-linear dynamical susceptibility, a quantity usually introduced to quantitatively characterize the…
We probe the mechanisms at work in the build-up of thermoreversible gel networks, with the help of hybrid gelatin gels containing a controlled density of irreversible, covalent crosslinks (CL), which we quench below the physical gelation…
Colloidal nanocrystal gels can be assembled using a difunctional "linker" molecule to mediate bonding between nanocrystals. The conditions for gelation and the structure of the gel are controlled macroscopically by the linker concentration…
Using molecular dynamics simulations, we have determined that the nature of dynamical heterogeneity in jammed liquids is very sensitive to short-ranged attractions. Weakly attractive systems differ little from dense hard-sphere and…
The elasticity of disordered and polydisperse polymer networks is a fundamental problem of soft matter physics that is still open. Here, we self-assemble polymer networks via simulations of a mixture of bivalent and tri- or tetravalent…
We investigate in detail a recent model of colliding mobile agents [Phys. Rev. Lett.~96, 088702], used as an alternative approach to construct evolving networks of interactions formed by the collisions governed by suitable dynamical rules.…
In the free energy landscape picture of glassy systems, the slow dynamics characteristic of these systems is believed to be due to the existence of a complicated free-energy landscape with many local minima. We show here that for a…
We consider a microscopic model of a polymer blend that is prone to phase separation. Permanent crosslinks are introduced between randomly chosen pairs of monomers, drawn from the Deam-Edwards distribution. Thereby, not only density but…
The dynamical arrest of attractive colloidal particles into out-of-equilibrium structures, known as gelation, is central to biophysics, materials science, nanotechnology, and food and cosmetic applications, but a complete understanding is…
In this thesis we deal with the specific collective phenomena in condensed matter - striped-structures formation. Such structures are observed in different branches of condensed matter physics, like surface physics or physics of…
A network as a substrate for dynamic processes may have its own dynamics. We propose a model for networks which evolve together with diffusing particles through a coupled dynamics, and investigate emerging structural property. The model…
The dynamics of particles interacting by key-lock binding of attached biomolecules are studied theoretically. Experimental realizations of such systems include colloids grafted with complementary single-stranded DNA (ssDNA), and particles…
Structure formation and constant reorganization of the actin cytoskeleton are key requirements for the function of living cells. Here we show that a minimal reconstituted system consisting of actin filaments, crosslinking molecules and…
Depletion interactions between colloidal particles dispersed in a fluid medium are effective interactions induced by the presence of other types of colloid. They are not instantaneous but build up in time. We show by means Brownian dynamics…
Rigidity percolation (RP) occurs when mechanical stability emerges in disordered networks as constraints or components are added. Here we discuss RP with structural correlations, an effect ignored in classical theories albeit relevant to…