Related papers: Semiflexible Chains under Tension
Chain molecules play important roles in industry and in living cells. Our focus here is on distinct ways of modeling the stiffness inherent in a chain molecule. We consider three types of stiffnesses -- one yielding an energy penalty for…
We discuss the possible applications of string theory for the construction of generalizations of the $SU(3)\times SU(2)\times U(1)$ standard model of strong and electroweak interactions. This includes an investigation of effective $d=4$…
We examine the nonequilibrium production of topological defects -- braids -- in semiflexible filament bundles under cycles of compression and tension. During these cycles, the period of compression facilitates the thermally activated pair…
We develop a formalism to describe the equilibrium distributions for segments of confined branched networks consisting of stiff filaments. This is applicable to certain situations of cytoskeleton in cells, such as for example actin…
We calculate the distribution function of the end--to--end distance of a semiflexible polymer with large bending rigidity. This quantity is directly observable in experiments on single semiflexible polymers (e.g., DNA, actin) and relevant…
Motivated by the observation of the storage of excess elastic free energy - (prestress) -- in cross linked semiflexible networks, we consider the problem of the conformational statistics of a single semiflexible polymer in a quenched random…
One cannot pull an open, curved string along itself. This fact is clearly reflected in the unwrapping motion of a string or chain as it is dragged around an object, and implies strong consequences for slender structures in passive…
By resorting to the thick-chain model we discuss how the stretching response of a polymer is influenced by the self-avoidance entailed by its finite thickness. The characterization of the force versus extension curve for a thick chain is…
We apply a recently developed model of cytoskeletal force generation to study a cell intrinsic contractility, as well as its response to external loading. The model is based on a non-equilibrium thermodynamic treatment of the…
A three dimensional mesoscopic model is applied to study the properties of short DNA chains in a confining environment. The cylindrical channel is represented by a hard-wall repulsive potential incorporated in the system Hamiltonian. The…
Force versus extension curves measure entropic elasticity of single polymer chain in force spectroscopy experiments. A Worm-like Chain model is used to describe force extension experiments with an intrinsic chain parameter called…
The fracture and severing of polymer chains plays a critical role in the failure of fibrous materials and the regulated turnover of intracellular filaments. Using continuum wormlike chain models, we investigate the fracture of semiflexible…
We develop an effective medium approach to the mechanics of disordered, semiflexible polymer networks and study the response of such networks to uniform and nonuniform strain. We identify distinct elastic regimes in which the contributions…
It was found recently that processes of multidimensional tunneling are generally described at high energies by unstable semiclassical trajectories. We study two observational signatures related to the instability of trajectories. First, we…
Supersymmetry can be consistently generalized in one and two dimensional spaces, fractional supersymmetry being one of the possible extension. 2D fractional supersymmetry of arbitrary order $F$ is explicitly constructed using an adapted…
Prestrained elastic networks arise in a number of biological and technological systems ranging from the cytoskeleton of cells to tensegrity structures. To understand the response of such a network as a function of the prestrain, we consider…
Accurate force/torque estimation is essential for applications such as powered exoskeletons, robotics, and rehabilitation. However, force/torque estimation under dynamic conditions is a challenging due to changing joint angles, force…
We analyze static properties of a strongly confined semiflexible polymer, i.e. either trapped in a closed space or compressed by external forces, in an athermal solvent. Like a flexible polymer case, we can resort to an analogy with the…
The folding transition of single, long semiflexible polymers was studied with special emphasis on the chain length effect using Monte Carlo simulations. While a relatively short chain (10-25 Kuhn segments) undergoes a large discrete…
We present an exact and Monte Carlo renormalization group (MCRG) study of semiflexible polymer chains on an infinite family of the plane-filling (PF) fractals. The fractals are compact, that is, their fractal dimension $d_f$ is equal to 2…