软凝聚态物质
Rotating particles moving in fluids undergo a transverse migration via the inertia-induced Magnus effect. This phenomenon vanishes at colloidal scales because inertia is negligible and the fluid flow is time reversible. Yet, recent…
The static and dynamic properties of a cyclic Rouse chain modified by the introduction of an effective, spherically symmetric, attracting potential of entropic nature is studied. It is shown that a relatively weak potential can lead to a…
This article concludes a three-part series developing a self-consistent theoretical framework of the electromechanics of lipid membranes at the continuum scale. Owing to their small thickness, lipid membranes are commonly modeled as…
Comment to article published in Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A.: Garaizar, A. et al. 'Toward understanding lipid reorganization in RNA lipid nanoparticles in acidic environments.' Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 121, e2404555121 (2024)
We find the mixing induced by a small swimming organism in a density stratified fluid. We model the swimmer as a spherical squirmer and quantify mixing through a mixing efficiency that is the ratio of rate of change of potential energy of…
This article is the second of a three-part series that derives a self-consistent theoretical framework of the electromechanics of arbitrarily curved lipid membranes. Existing continuum theories commonly treat lipid membranes as strictly…
The aggregate glue of spider orb web is an excellent natural adhesive. Orb-weaver spiders use micron-scale aggregate glue droplets to retain prey in the capture spiral silks of their orb web. In aggregate glue droplets, highly glycosylated…
Using discrete element simulations based on molecular dynamics, we investigate the mechanical behavior of sheared, dry, frictional granular media in the "dense" and "critical" regimes. We find that this behavior is partitioned between…
We report on the second harmonic generation performance of a ferroelectric nematic fluid consisting of the prototype ferroelectric nematic liquid crystal, RM734 mixed with the classical chromophore Dispersed-Orange 3 at 5 %wt. The mixture…
Predicting crack trajectories in brittle solids remains an open challenge in fracture mechanics due to the non-local nature of crack propagation and the way cracks modify their surrounding medium. Here, we develop a framework for…
The role of particle shape in evaporation-induced auto-stratification in dispersed colloidal suspensions is explored with molecular dynamics simulations of mixtures of solid spheres, aspherical particles, and hollow spheres. A unified…
This paper introduces a new paradigm that integrates the concepts of particle abrasion and breakage. Both processes can co-occur under loading as soil particles are subjected to friction as well as collisions between particles. Therefore,…
The coupling of electric fields to the mechanics of lipid membranes gives rise to intriguing electromechanical behavior, as, for example, evidenced by the deformation of lipid vesicles in external electric fields. Electromechanical effects…
We present a sufficient criterion for the emergence of cluster phases in an ensemble of interacting classical particles with repulsive two-body interactions. Through a zero-temperature analysis in the low density region we determine the…
At low temperatures ultrasoft particle systems develop interesting phases via the self-assembly of particle clusters. In this study we develop a general zero-temperature analysis fully characterizing the ground state of such models in two…
Recent research on interfacial instabilities of smectic films has shown unexpected morphologies that are not fully explained by classical local equilibrium thermodynamics. Annealing focal conic domains can lead to conical pyramids, changing…
Curved structures in soft matter and biological systems commonly emerge as a result of self-assembly processes where building blocks aggregate in a controlled manner, giving rise to specific system structure and properties. Learning how to…
We numerically study Turing patterns (TPs) on two-dimensional surfaces with a square boundary in ${\bf R}^3$ using a surface model for polymerized membranes. The variables used to describe the membranes correspond to two distinct degrees of…
The singular potential method in the Q tensor order parameter representation is used to determine the ground state configuration of an elastically anisotropic nematic liquid crystal when confined to a cylindrical geometry with homeotropic…
In soft amorphous solids, localized irreversible (plastic) stress dissipation occurs as a response to external forcings. A crucial question is whether we can identify structural properties linked to a region's propensity to undergo a…