Related papers: Cholesteric Phase in Virus Suspensions
Using Dynamic Light Scattering in heterodyne mode, we measure velocity profiles in a much studied system of wormlike micelles (CPCl/NaSal) known to exhibit both shear-banding and stress plateau behavior. Our data provide evidence for the…
Handedness of the director twist in cholesteric liquid crystals is commonly assumed to be the same throughout the medium, determined solely by the chirality of constituent molecules or chiral additives, albeit distortions of the…
Cholesteric liquid crystals exhibit great morphological richness of static metastable states. Understanding the transitions between such states is key for the development of switchable devices. We show, using a quasi-one-dimensional model,…
Using tools and concepts from contact topology we show that non-vanishing twist implies conservation of the layer structure in cholesteric liquid crystals. This leads to a number of additional topological invariants for cholesteric…
We discuss the phenomenology of phase transitions studied with two control variables. Such measurements have become routine with magnetic field and temperature being varied for 1st order magnetic transitions with an ease not conceivable…
We numerically investigate the phase behavior of thick shells of cholesteric liquid crystals with tangential anchoring at the shell boundary. For achiral liquid crystal, we demonstrate a thickness-dependent transition from a configuration…
The effect of electrostatic interactions on the stretching of DNA is investigated using a simple worm like chain model. In the limit of small force there are large conformational fluctuations which are treated using a self-consistent…
During the lifecycle of a virus, viral proteins and other components self-assemble to form a symmetric protein shell called a capsid. This assembly process is subject to multiple competing constraints, including the need to form a…
We investigate spinodal decomposition kinetics of an initially nematic dispersion of rod-like viruses (fd virus). Quench experiments are performed from a flow-stabilized homogeneous nematic state at high shear rate into the two-phase…
I-V characteristics of polycrystalline Y(1-x)CaxBa2Cu3O(7-{\delta}) samples (x=0.025 and 0.20) have been measured at different temperatures and magnetic fields in the range 0.1 T-6.9 T. The scaling behavior has been established for both…
A highly concentrated (17 vol.%) Fe-C nano-particle system, with a narrow size distribution $d = 5.4\pm 0.4$ nm, has been investigated using magnetic ac susceptibility measurements covering a wide range of frequencies (17 mHz - 170 Hz). A…
Shear viscosity and wall slip of dense suspensions of a silicone polymer incorporated with polydisperse particles were investigated. Three types of particles with low aspect ratios were used to achieve a relatively high maximum packing…
Lipid rafts are hypothesized to facilitate protein interaction, tension regulation, and trafficking in biological membranes, but the mechanisms responsible for their formation and maintenance are not clear. Insights into many other…
We have investigated the relationship between the morphology of helical particles and the features of the cholesteric (N$^\ast $) phase that they form. Using an Onsager-like theory, applied to systems of hard helices, we show that the…
We model a cholesteric liquid crystal as a planar uniaxial multilayer system, where the orientation of each layer differs slightly from that of the adjacent one. This allows us to analytically simplify the otherwise acutely complicated…
Even at zero temperature, there exist phase fluctuations associated with an array of Bose-Einstein condensates confined in a one-dimensional optical lattice. We demonstrate a method to measure the phase fluctuations based on the Fourier…
We adopt a Quality by Design (QbD) paradigm to better control the mechanical properties of tablets. To this end, the effect of particle size distribution, lubricant concentration, and mixing time on the tensile strength and elastic modulus…
We report experimental measurements of particle dynamics on slowly sheared granular matter in a three-dimensional (3D) Couette cell. A closely-packed ensemble of transparent spherical beads is confined by an external pressure and filled…
Powders are a special class of granular matter due to the important role of cohesive forces. The flow behavior of powders depends on the flow states and stress and is therefore difficult to measure/quantify with only one experiment. In this…
We present an elastic model of B-form DNA as a stack of thin, rigid plates or base pairs that are not permitted to deform. The symmetry of DNA and the constraint of plate rigidity limit the number of bulk elastic constants contributing to a…