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Live cells have ambiguous mechanical properties. They were often described as either elastic solids or viscoelastic fluids and have recently been classified as soft glassy materials characterized by weak power-law rheology. Nonlinear…
We present an off-lattice statistical model of a single polymer chain in mixed solvent media. Taking into account a polymer conformational entropy, renormalization of solvent composition near the polymer backbone, the universal…
Elastic models of the glass transition relate the relaxation dynamics and the elastic properties of structural glasses. They are based on the assumption that the relaxation dynamics occurs through activated events in the energy landscape…
We study a one-dimensional electron liquid coupled by a weak spin-exchange interaction to an antiferromagnetic spin-S ladder with n legs. A perturbative renormalization group analysis in the semiclassical limit reveals the opening of a spin…
We study the unfolding of a single polymer chain due to an external force. We use a simplified model which allows to perform all calculations in closed form without assuming a Boltzmann-Gibbs form for the equilibrium distribution.…
When sheared, most elastic solids such as metals, rubbers and polymer hydrogels dilate in the direction perpendicular to the shear plane. This well-known behaviour known as the Poynting effect is characterized by a positive normal stress.…
Advanced chain-growth computer simulation methodologies have been employed for a systematic statistical analysis of the critical behavior of a polymer adsorbing at a substrate. We use finitesize scaling techniques to investigate the…
Polyelectrolyte gels are a very attractive class of actuation materials with remarkable electronic and mechanical properties with a great similarity to biological contractile tissues. They consist of a polymer network with ionizable groups…
In equilibrium, the physical properties of matter are set by the interactions between the constituents. In contrast, the energy input of the individual components controls the behavior of synthetic or living active matter. Great progress…
Activation/deactivation by inelastic collisions have been extensively studied at unimolecular reactions in gas phase where they are crucial for equilibration. As equilibration means an increase of entropy, the mechanism can also be…
In this study, we propose a theoretical framework to investigate the interactions between flexible polymer chains, specifically polyelectrolytes (PEs). By calculating the system's free energy while considering position-dependent mutual…
We study the response of granular materials to external stress using experiment, simulation, and theory. We derive an entropic, Ginzburg-Landau functional that enforces mechanical stability and positivity of contact forces. In this…
Despite the long-recognized fact that chemical structure and specific interactions greatly influence the thermodynamic properties of polymer systems, a predictive molecular theory that enables systematically addressing the role of chemical…
The physics of itinerant electrons in condensed matter is by and large governed by repulsive Coulomb forces. However, rare cases exist where local attractive interactions emerge and prevail in determining the ground state of the system…
Active gels play an important role in biology and in inspiring biomimetic active materials, due to their ability to change shape, size and create their own morphology; the relevant mechanics behind these changes is driven by…
We generalize a recently investigated lattice model of semiflexible polymers formed under equilibrium polymerization in a solution and conduct a comprehensive investigation of its melting properties. The model is characterized by six…
We consider equilibrium relaxation properties of the end-to-end distance and of principal components in a one-dimensional polymer chain model with nonlinear interaction between the beads. While for the single-well potentials these…
We investigate the mechanical properties of amorphous polymers by means of coarse-grained simulations and nonaffine lattice dynamics theory. A small increase of polymer chain bending stiffness leads first to softening of the material, while…
Active processes in living systems generate nonequilibrium forces that deform embedded passive macromolecules. To understand how such dynamics influence polymer conformation, we study a flexible passive chain in an active nematic fluid.…
In this paper we consider an exactly solvable model which displays glassy behavior at zero temperature due to entropic barriers. The new ingredient of the model is the existence of different energy scales or modes associated to different…