Related papers: Enhanced molecular diffusion near a soft fluctuati…
It was recently discovered that friction between surfaces bearing phosphatidylcholine (PC) lipid bilayers can be increased by two orders of magnitude or more via an externally-applied electric field, and that this increase is fully…
Understanding interactions between membranes requires measurements on well-controlled systems close to natural conditions, in which fluctuations play an important role. We have determined, by grazing incidence X-ray scattering, the…
Soft colloids are increasingly used as model systems to address fundamental issues such as crystallisation and the glass and jamming transitions. Among the available classes of soft colloids, microgels are emerging as the gold standard.…
We study theoretically the spatiotemporal response of a lipid membrane submitted to a local chemical change of its environment, taking into account the time-dependent profile of the reagent concentration due to diffusion in the solution…
Diffusion at solid-liquid interfaces is crucial in many technological and biophysical processes. Although its behavior seems deceivingly simple, recent studies showing passive superdiffusive transport suggest diffusion on surfaces may hide…
Whether live cell membranes show miscibility phase transitions (MPTs), and if so, how they fluctuate near the transitions remain outstanding unresolved issues in physics and biology alike. Motivated by these questions we construct a generic…
Using classical density functional theory (DFT) we calculate the density profile $\rho({\mathbf r})$ and local compressibility $\chi({\mathbf r})$ of a simple liquid solvent in which a pair of blocks with (microscopic) rectangular…
To explain the appearance of heterogeneities in the plasma membrane, I propose a hypothesis which begins with the observation that fluctuations in the membrane curvature are coupled to the difference between compositions in one leaf and the…
We investigate the origin of the density depletion and enhanced density fluctuations that occur in water in the vicinity of an extended hydrophobic solute. We argue that both phenomena are remnants of the critical drying surface phase…
Using fluorescence microscopy we study the adsorption of single latex microparticles at a water/water interface between demixing aqueous solutions of polymers, generally known as a water-in-water emulsion. Similar microparticles at the…
The adsorption behavior of ions at liquid-vapor interfaces exhibits several unexpected yet generic features. In particular, energy and entropy are both minimum when the solute resides near the surface, for a variety of ions in a range of…
The understanding of dynamics and functioning of biological membranes and in particular of membrane embedded proteins is one of the most fundamental problems and challenges in modern biology and biophysics. In particular the impact of…
We develop theory and computational methods to investigate particle inclusions embedded within curved lipid bilayer membranes. We consider the case of spherical lipid vesicles where inclusion particles are coupled through (i) intramembrane…
Combining experiments and theory, we address the dynamics of self-propelled particles in crowded environments. We first demonstrate that motile colloids cruising at constant speed through random lattices undergo a smooth transition from…
The standard model of enhanced ionic conductivities in solid electrolyte heterostructures follows from a continuum mean-field description of defect distributions that makes no reference to crystalline structure. To examine ionic transport…
The adsorption dynamics of a colloidal particle at a fluid interface is studied theoretically and numerically, documenting distinctly different relaxation regimes. The adsorption of a perfectly smooth particle is characterized by a fast…
The complicated dynamics of the contact line of a moving droplet on a solid substrate often hamper the efficient modeling of microfluidic systems. In particular, the selection of the effective boundary conditions, specifying the contact…
A new diffuse interface model for a two-phase flow of two incompressible fluids with different densities is introduced using methods from rational continuum mechanics. The model fulfills local and global dissipation inequalities and is…
The behavior of fluid interfaces far from equilibrium plays central roles in nature and in industry. Active swimmers trapped at interfaces can alter transport at fluid boundaries with far reaching implications. Swimmers can become trapped…
We report results of molecular dynamics simulations to understand the role of solute and solute-solvent interaction on solute diffusivity in a solid solution within a body centered cubic solid when the solute size is significantly smaller…