相关论文: Perspective: Geometrically-Frustrated Assemblies

Self-assembly of granular particles is of great interest in both applied and basic research. It is commonly observed that when randomly packed into a container, granular particles form disordered structures like glass. As the particles are…

Cohesive assemblies of filaments are a common structural motif found in diverse contexts, ranging from biological materials such as fibrous proteins, to artificial materials such as carbon nanotube ropes and micropatterned filament arrays.…

The uniform director field obtained for the nematic ground state of the hard-rod model of liquid crystals in two dimensions reflects the high symmetry of the constituents of the liquid; It is a manifestation of the constituents' local…

The concept of geometrical frustration in condensed matter physics refers to the fact that a system has a locally preferred structure with an energy density lower than the infinite ground state. This notion is however often used in a…

In both nature and engineering, loosely packed granular materials are often compacted inside confined geometries. Here, we explore such behaviour in a quasi-two dimensional geometry, where parallel rigid walls provide the confinement. We…

Crystallography may be the gold standard of protein structure determination, but obtaining the necessary high-quality crystals is also in some ways akin to prospecting for the precious metal. The tools and models developed in soft matter…

We study the geometrical frustration scenario of glass formation for simple hard sphere models. We find that the dual picture in terms of defects brings little insight and no theoretical simplification for the understanding of the slowing…

We present a model, based on symmetry and geometry, for proteins. Using elementary ideas from mathematics and physics, we derive the geometries of discrete helices and sheets. We postulate a compatible solvent-mediated emergent pairwise…

Many structural properties of conventional passive materials are known to arise from the symmetries of their microscopic constituents. By contrast, it is largely unclear how the interplay between cell shape and self-propulsion controls the…

Packing frustration for confined fluids, i.e., the incompatibility between the preferred packing of the fluid particles and the packing constraints imposed by the confining surfaces, is studied for a dense hard-sphere fluid confined between…

Spontaneous self-assembly in molecular systems is a fundamental route to both biological and engineered soft matter. Simple micellisation, emulsion formation, and polymer mixing principles are well understood. However, the principles behind…

The use of reduced models for investigating the self-assembly dynamics underlying protein shell formation in spherical viruses is described. The spontaneous self-assembly of these polyhedral, supramolecular structures, in which icosahedral…

Granular media near jamming exhibit fascinating properties, which can be harnessed to create jammed-granulate metamaterials: materials whose characteristics arise not only from the shape and material properties of the particles at the…

Geometric frustration is a widespread phenomenon in physics, materials science, and biology, occurring when the geometry of a system prevents local interactions from being all accommodated. The resulting manifold of nearly degenerate…

Very soft grain assemblies have unique shape-changing capabilities that allow them to be compressed far beyond the rigid jammed state by filling void spaces more effectively. However, accurately following the formation of these systems by…

The self-assembly of molecules at surfaces can be caused by a range of physical mechanisms. Assembly can be driven by intermolecular forces, or molecule-surface forces, or both; it can result in structures that are in equilibrium or that…

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…

The possibility to align and organize faceted particles in the bulk offers intriguing possibilities for the design and discovery of materials and architectures exhibiting novel functional properties. The growth of ice crystals can be used…

The surface curvature of membranes, interfaces, and substrates plays a crucial role in shaping the self-assembly of particles adsorbed on these surfaces. However, little is known about the interplay between particle anisotropy and surface…

Geometric frustration leads to complex phases of matter with exotic properties. Antiferromagnets on triangular lattices and square ice are two simple models of geometrical frustration. We map their highly degenerated ground-state phase…