Related papers: Accelerated Ostwald ripening by chemical activity
The process of phase separation in elastic solids and viscous fluids is of fundamental importance to the stability and function of soft materials. We explore the dynamics of phase separation and domain growth in a viscoelastic material such…
The formation of (bio)molecular condensates via liquid-liquid phase separation in cells has received increasing attention, as these coacervates play important functional and regulatory roles within biological systems. However, the majority…
Via molecular dynamics simulations, we study the kinetics in a phase separating active matter model. Quantitative results for the isotropic bicontinuous pattern formation, its growth and aging, studied, respectively, via the two-point…
Chemical reactions can accelerate, slow down or even be at the very origin of the development of dissolution-driven convection in partially miscible stratifications, when they impact the density profile in the host fluid phase. We…
The compartmentalization of chemical reactions within droplets has advantages in low costs, reduced consumption of reagents and increased throughput. Reactions in small droplets have also been shown to greatly accelerate the rate of many…
We study Ostwald ripening of two-dimensional adatom and advacancy islands on a crystal surface by means of kinetic Monte Carlo simulations. At large bond energies the islands are square-shaped, which qualitatively changes the coarsening…
Biomolecular condensates constitute a newly recognized form of spatial organization in living cells. Although many condensates are believed to form as a result of phase separation, the physicochemical properties that determine the phase…
We present a generic mechanism by which reproducing microorganisms, with a diffusivity that depends on the local population density, can form stable patterns. It is known that a decrease of swimming speed with density can promote separation…
Unlike most other laws of nature, the second law of thermodynamics is of a statistical nature, according to Boltzmann, meaning that its reliability arises from the vast number of particles present in macroscopic systems. This means that…
We study the collective two-channel dissociation dynamics of a molecular Bose-Einstein condensate into bosonic fragments under tight harmonic confinement. Bose-stimulated dissociation in either channel can only take place provided that the…
Phase separation in confined environments is a fundamental process underlying geological flows, porous filtration, emulsions, and intracellular organization. Yet, how confinement and activity jointly govern coarsening kinetics and…
The condensational growth of spherical water microdroplets is studied in a laboratory setup and with a mathematical model. In the experiment, droplet clusters are kept in a freely levitated state within an upward-oriented flow of water…
We study the photodissociation chemistry of a quantum degenerate gas of bosonic triatomic $ABC$ molecules, assuming two open rearrangement channels ($AB+C$ or $A+BC$). The equations of motion are equivalent to those of a parametric…
We present theory and simulation of simultaneous chemical demixing and phase ordering in a polymer-liquid crystal mixture in conditions where isotropic-isotropic phase separation is metastable with respect to isotropic-nematic phase…
Cells regulate gene expression in part by forming DNA-protein condensates in the nucleus. While existing theories describe the equilibrium size and stability of such condensates, their dynamics remain less understood. Here, we use…
We numerically study the many-body physics of molecular Bose-Einstein condensates with strong dipole-dipole interactions. We observe the formation of self-bound droplets, and explore phase diagrams that feature a variety of exotic…
Non-equilibrium selection pressures were proposed for the formation of oligonucleotides with rich functionalities encoded in their sequences, such as catalysis. Since phase separation was shown to direct various chemical processes, we ask…
Phase separation of various materials has been studied for one and a half centuries. In the last two decades, phase separation of proteins and nucleic acids has received enormous attention, due its relevance to cellular functions. However,…
Biomolecular condensates are formed via liquid-liquid phase separation of proteins, often together with nucleic acids, typically driven by interactions between low-affinity binding sites. The computational study of such condensates that…
Cell polarization plays a central role in the development of complex organisms. It has been recently shown that cell polarization may follow from the proximity to a phase separation instability in a bistable network of chemical reactions.…