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We employ small-angle X-ray and dynamic light scattering to investigate the microscopic structure and dynamics of dense suspensions of ultra-low crosslinked (ULC) poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) microgels. By probing the supercooled…
One of the central problems of the liquid-glass transition is whether there is a structural signature that can qualitatively distinguish different dynamic behaviors at different degrees of supercooling. Here, we propose a novel structural…
Temporal relaxation of density fluctuations in supercooled liquids near the glass transition occurs in multiple steps. The short-time $\beta$-relaxation is generally attributed to spatially local processes involving the rattling motion of a…
We combine the hyper-netted chain approximation of liquid state theory with the mode-coupling theory of the glass transition to analyze the structure and dynamics of soft spheres interacting via harmonic repulsion. We determine the locus of…
We examine the dynamics of hard spheres and discs at high packing fractions in two and three dimensions, modeling the simplest systems exhibiting a glass transition. As it is well known, cooperativity and dynamic heterogeneity arise as…
The mixed-alkali effect on the cation dynamics in silicate glasses is analyzed via molecular dynamics simulations. Observations suggest a description of the dynamics in terms of stable sites mostly specific to one ionic species. As main…
Biomolecular condensates play a crucial role in the spatial organization of living matter. These membrane-less organelles, resulting from liquid-liquid phase separation, operate far from thermodynamic equilibrium, with their size and…
Molecular dynamics simulations of interacting soft disks confined in a heterogeneous quenched matrix of soft obstacles show dynamics which is fundamentally different from that of hard disks. The interactions between the disks can enhance…
By means of computer simulations and solution of the equations of the Mode Coupling Theory (MCT), we investigate the role of the intramolecular barriers on several dynamic aspects of non-entangled polymers. The investigated dynamic range…
Coordinated movement and self-organisation of active self-driven agents is common in nature and is seen across different scales, from herds of animals to collective motion in bacteria. Often, these systems are heterogeneous in composition,…
Interfaces are a most common motif in complex systems. To understand how the presence of interfaces affect hydrophobic phenomena, we use molecular simulations and theory to study hydration of solutes at interfaces. The solutes range in size…
Active glasses refer to a class of driven non-equilibrium systems that share remarkably similar dynamical behavior as conventional glass-formers in equilibrium. Glass-like dynamical characteristics have been observed in various biological…
The dynamics of structural relaxation in a model polymer glass subject to spatially-homogeneous, time-periodic shear deformation is investigated using molecular dynamics simulations. We study a coarse-grained bead-spring model of short…
We probe the temperature dependence of friction at the interface between a glassy poly(methylmethacrylate) lens and a flat substrate coated with a methyl-terminated self-assembled monolayer. The monolayer exhibits density defects which act…
Recent studies on the evolutionary dynamics of the Prisoner's Dilemma game in scale-free networks have demonstrated that the heterogeneity of the network interconnections enhances the evolutionary success of cooperation. In this paper we…
Glass-forming materials are characterized by an intermittent motion at the microscopic scale. Particles spend most of their time rattling within the cages formed by their neighbors, and seldom jump to a different cage. In molecular glass…
Using molecular dynamics simulations we study the slow dynamics of a hard sphere fluid confined in a disordered porous matrix. The presence of both discontinuous and continuous glass transitions as well as the complex interplay between…
In active microrheology the mechanical properties of a material are tested by adding probe particles which are pulled by an external force. In case of supercooled liquids, strong forcing leads to a thinning of the host material which…
We investigate the spatio-temporal distribution of microscopic relaxation events, defined through particle hops, in a model polymer glass using molecular dynamics simulations. We introduce an efficient algorithm to directly identify hops…
Microgels are complex macromolecules. These colloid-sized polymer networks possess internal degrees of freedom and, depending on the polymer(s) they are made of, can acquire a responsiveness to variations of the environment (temperature,…