Related papers: Entropic forces generated by grafted semiflexible …
Some recent results on the rotational dynamics of polymers are reviewed and extended. We focus here on the relaxation of a polymer, either flexible or semiflexible, initially wrapped around a rigid rod. We also study the steady polymer…
Polymers exposed to shear flow exhibit a rich tumbling dynamics. While rigid rods rotate on Jeffery orbits, flexible polymers stretch and coil up during tumbling. Theoretical results show that in both of these asymptotic regimes the…
The exact solution of directed self-avoiding walks confined to a slit of finite width and interacting with the walls of the slit via an attractive potential has been calculated recently. The walks can be considered to model the…
Here, we provide an overview of theoretical approaches to semiflexible polymers and their networks. Such semiflexible polymers have large bending rigidities that can compete with the entropic tendency of a chain to crumple up into a random…
As a stiff polymer tumbles in shear flow, it experiences compressive viscous forces that can cause it to buckle and undergo a sequence of morphological transitions with increasing flow strength. We use numerical simulations to uncover the…
Many glass-forming fluids exhibit a remarkable thermodynamic scaling in which dynamic properties, such as the viscosity, the relaxation time, and the diffusion constant, can be described under different thermodynamic conditions in terms of…
The dynamical response of a tethered semiflexible polymer with self-attractive interactions and subjected to an external force field is numerically investigated by varying stiffness and self-interaction strength. The chain is confined in…
Inspired by recent experiments on chromosomal dynamics, we introduce an exactly solvable model for the interaction between a flexible polymer and a set of motor-like enzymes. The enzymes can bind and unbind to specific sites of the polymer…
We review the physical properties of macromolecular networks, consisting of semiflexible polymers such as actin. We start by giving a theoretical analysis of the conformational statistics and mechanical response of single filaments.…
Entropic forces result from an increase of the entropy of a thermodynamical physical system. It has been proposed that gravity is such a phenomenon and many articles have appeared on the literature concerning this problem. Loop quantum…
Highly oriented polymer films can show considerable anisotropy in the thermoelectric properties leading to power factors beyond those predicted by the widely obeyed power law linking the thermopower $S$ and the electrical conductivity…
The persistence length of macromolecules is one of their basic characteristics, describing their intrinsic local stiffness. However, it is difficult to extract this length from physical properties of the polymers, different recipes may give…
Structure and dynamics of an active polymer on a smooth cylindrical surface are studied by Brownian dynamics simulations. The effect of active force on the polymer adsorption behavior and the combined effect of chain mobility, length N,…
Using exact enumerations of self-avoiding walks (SAWs) we compute the inhomogeneous pressure exerted by a two-dimensional end-grafted polymer on the grafting line which limits a semi-infinite square lattice. The results for SAWs show that…
Active dynamic processes of cells are largely driven by the cytoskeleton, a complex and adaptable semiflexible polymer network, motorized by mechanoenzymes. Small dimensions, confined geome- tries and hierarchical structures make it…
We consider forces acting on objects immersed in, or attached to, long fluctuating polymers. The confinement of the polymer by the obstacles results in polymer-mediated forces that can be repulsive (due to loss of entropy) or attractive (if…
The dynamic structure factor of semiflexible polymers in solution is derived from the wormlike chain model. Special attention is paid to the rigid constraint of an inextensible contour and to the hydrodynamic interactions. For the cases of…
We present a particle separation mechanism which induces motion of particles of different sizes in opposite directions. The mechanism is based on the combined action of a driving force and an entropic rectification of the Brownian…
Enstrophy is an averaged measure of fluid vorticity. This quantity is particularly important in {\em rotating} geophysical flows. We investigate the dynamical evolution of enstrophy for large-scale quasi-geostrophic flows under random wind…
We have studied biomembranes with grafted polymer chains using a coarse-grained membrane simulation, where a meshless membrane model is combined with polymer chains. We focus on the polymer-induced entropic effects on mechanical properties…