Related papers: Self-organized Pattern Formation in Motor-Microtub…
We study the steady state of an assembly of microtubules in a confined volume, analogous to the situation inside a cell where the cell boundary forms a natural barrier to growth. We show that the dynamical equations for growing and…
A recently introduced active phase field crystal model describes the formation of ordered resting and traveling crystals in systems of self-propelled particles. Increasing the active drive, a resting crystal can be forced to perform…
One of the most interesting phenomena in the soft-matter realm consists in the spontaneous formation of super-molecular structures (microphases) in condition of thermodynamic equilibrium. A simple mechanism responsible for this…
The formation of dynamical patterns is one of the most striking features of nonequilibrium physical systems. Recent work has shown that such patterns arise generically from forces that violate Newton's third law, known as nonreciprocal…
The linear hydrodynamic stability of a model for confined quasi-two-dimensional granular gases is analyzed. The system exhibits homogeneous hydrodynamics, i.e. there are macroscopic evolution equations for homogeneous states. The stability…
The dynamic behavior of microtubules in solution can be strongly modified by interactions with walls or other structures. We examine here a microtubule growth model where the increase in size of the plus-end is perturbed by collisions with…
We study avenues to shape multistability and shape-morphing in flexible crystalline membranes of cylindrical topology, enabled by glide mobility of dislocations. Using computational modeling, we obtain states of mechanical equilibrium…
A novel theoretical model of dynamic instability of a system of linear (1D) microtubules (MTs) in a bounded domain is introduced for studying the role of a cell edge in vivo and analyzing the effect of competition for a limited amount of…
Formation of spatial patterns of cells is a recurring theme in biology and often depends on regulated cell motility. Motility of M. xanthus depends on two motility machineries: the S-engine and A-engine. Moving M. xanthus cells can organize…
Many biological processes are supported by special molecules, called motor proteins or molecular motors, that transport cellular cargoes along linear protein filaments and can reversibly associate to their tracks. Stimulated by these…
By means of the variational method and numerical simulations, we demonstrate the existence of stable 3D nonlinear modes, viz. vortex ``bullets'', in the form of pulsed beams carrying orbital angular momentum, that can self-trap in a 2D…
Transport at microscopic length scales is essential in biological systems and various technologies, including microfluidics. Recent experiments achieved self-organized transport phenomena in microtubule active matter using light to modulate…
We report on the emergence of stable self-propelled bound defects in monolayers of active nematics, which form virtual full-integer topological defects in the form of vortices and asters. Through numerical simulations and analytical…
Turbulent fluid flows exhibit a complex small-scale structure with frequently occurring extreme velocity gradients. Particles probing such swirling and straining regions respond with an intricate shape-dependent orientational dynamics,…
A unique pattern selection in the absolutely unstable regime of a driven, nonlinear, open-flow system is analyzed: The spatiotemporal structures of rotationally symmetric vortices that propagate downstream in the annulus of the rotating…
The formation of patterns in driven systems has been studied extensively, and their emergence can be connected to a fine balance of instabilities and stabilization mechanisms. While the early phase of pattern formation can be understood on…
We present experimental and theoretical studies of the dynamics of molecular motors in microtubule arrays and asters. By solving a convection-diffusion equation we find that the density profile of motors in a two-dimensional aster is…
Simulations show that when a phase-separated binary AB fluid is driven to flow past chemically patterned substrates in a microchannel, the fluid exhibits unique morphological instabilities. For the pattern studied, these instabilities give…
Recent experiments have exploited elastic instabilities in membranes to create complex patterns. However, the rational design of such structures poses many challenges, as they are products of nonlinear elastic behavior. We pose a simple…
Here we study a driven lattice gas model for microtubule depolymerizing molecular motors, where traffic jams of motors induce stochastic switching between microtubule growth and shrinkage. We term this phenomenon \enquote{traffic dynamic…