软凝聚态物质
We present a high-fidelity three dimensional computational framework for simulating the bulk mechanical behavior of granular aggregates composed of deformable brittle grains. Departing from classical discrete element methods (DEM), our…
We study the decay of tangential velocity profiles with distance from a local disturbance in hard-sphere colloidal suspensions as the colloidal glass transition is approached. The disturbance, generated by a dimer of superparamagnetic…
Theories of self-organized active fluid surfaces have emerged as an important class of minimal models for the shape dynamics of biological membranes, cells and tissues. However, due to their inherent geometric nonlinearities and the absence…
We study the aging of colloidal gels using light microscopy movies of depletion gels from the International Space Station. Under such microgravity conditions, we observe a slowdown in particle dynamics consistent with gel aging. Stronger…
We present a simplified theory for semiflexible flagella under the action of a traveling-wave perturbation that emulates the organized active forces generated by molecular motors, capable of inducing beating patterns to the filament. By…
We explore the diffusion dynamics of a Brownian microparticle in a lyotropic chromonic liquid crystal (LCLC). In the planarly oriented nematic phase, the microparticle exhibits levitation and anisotropic two-dimensional diffusion. Upon…
Sub-nanometer aqueous clusters containing a single trivalent metal cation can exhibit charge-induced structural instabilities. Here, we present computational evidence that clusters containing a single \ce{Fe^{3+}}, \ce{Lu^{3+}}, or…
Adhesion control at the interface of two surfaces is crucial in various applications, including the design of micro- and nanodevices such as microfluidic devices, triboelectric nanogenerators, biochips, and electronic sensors. Several…
We present a comprehensive study of gas leakage at interfaces based on Persson contact mechanics theory. A prototype syringe system consisting of a rubber stopper and a glass barrel is selected, where surface roughness is characterized…
In this note, we show that the Local Molecular Field theory of Weeks et. al. can be re-derived as an extremum problem for an approximate Helmholtz free energy. Using the resulting free energy as a classical, fluid density functional yields…
Thin layers of elastomers bonded to two rigid plates demonstrate unusual failure response. Historically, it has been believed that strongly-bonded layers fail by two distinct mechanisms: (i) internal/external penny-shaped crack nucleation…
Long-range interactions are ubiquitous in nature, where they are mediated by diffusive fields at the cellular scale or by visual cues for groups of animals. Short-range forces, which are paradigmatic in physics, can thus often be neglected…
Jerky active particles are Brownian self-propelled particles which are dominated by ``jerk'', the change in acceleration. They represent a generalization of inertial active particles. In order to describe jerky active particles, a linear…
Describing the complex landscape of infinite-dimensional free energy is generally a challenging problem. This difficulty arises from the existence of numerous minimizers and, consequently, a vast number of saddle points. These factors make…
We explored experimentally the self-organization at rest and the compression dynamics of a two-dimensional array of magnetic repelling particles, using two particle geometries, namely, disks and rectangular bars. Despite the non-contact…
We introduce a simple theoretical model, the Freely Jointed Chain with quenched hinges (qFJC), which captures the quenched disorder in the local bending stiffness of the polymer. In this article, we analyze the tensile elasticity of the…
The Plateau-Rayleigh instability shows that a cylindrical fluid flow can be destabilized by surface tension. Similarly, capillary forces can make an elastic cylinder unstable when the elastocapillary length is comparable to the cylinder's…
Soft pair potentials predict a reentrant liquid phase for high concentrations, a behavior not observed experimentally. Here, very soft microgels confined at an oil-water interface are used as a model system of particles interacting via a…
The ability to control the morphology of the nanotube deposit formed during the evaporation of a sessile droplet on a substrate is of theoretical and practical interest. Such deposits are required for various applications including…
We explore the behavior of spatially heterogeneous elastic moduli as well as the correlations between local moduli in model solids with short-range repulsive potentials. We show through numerical simulations that local elastic moduli…