6 research outputs found
Molecular Tilt on Monolayer-Protected Nanoparticles
The structure of the tilted phase of monolayer-protected nanoparticles is investigated by means of a simple Ginzburg-Landau model. The theory contains two dimensionless parameters representing the preferential tilt angle and the ratio (epsilon) between the energy cost due to spatial variations in the tilt of the coating molecules and that of the van der Waals interactions which favors uniform tilt. We analyze the model for both spherical and octahedral particles. On spherical particles, we find a transition from a tilted phase, at small (epsilon), to a phase where the molecules spontaneously align along the surface normal and tilt disappears. Octahedral particles have an additional phase at small characterized by the presence of six topological defects. These defective configurations provide preferred sites for the chemical functionalization of monolayer-protected nanoparticles via place-exchange reactions and their consequent linking to form molecules and\ud
bulk materials
Elastic Theory of Defects in Toroidal Crystals
We report a comprehensive analysis of the ground state properties of
axisymmetric toroidal crystals based on the elastic theory of defects on curved
substrates. The ground state is analyzed as a function of the aspect ratio of
the torus, which provides a non-local measure of the underlying Gaussian
curvature, and the ratio of the defect core-energy to the Young modulus.
Several structural features are discussed,including a spectacular example of
curvature-driven amorphization in the limit of the aspect ratio approaching
one. The outcome of the elastic theory is then compared with the results of a
numerical study of a system of point-like particles constrained on the surface
of a torus and interacting via a short range potential.Comment: 24 pages, 24 figure
Periodic boundary conditions on the pseudosphere
We provide a framework to build periodic boundary conditions on the
pseudosphere (or hyperbolic plane), the infinite two-dimensional Riemannian
space of constant negative curvature. Starting from the common case of periodic
boundary conditions in the Euclidean plane, we introduce all the needed
mathematical notions and sketch a classification of periodic boundary
conditions on the hyperbolic plane. We stress the possible applications in
statistical mechanics for studying the bulk behavior of physical systems and we
illustrate how to implement such periodic boundary conditions in two examples,
the dynamics of particles on the pseudosphere and the study of classical spins
on hyperbolic lattices.Comment: 30 pages, minor corrections, accepted to J. Phys.
MicroMotility: State of the art, recent accomplishments and perspectives on the mathematical modeling of bio-motility at microscopic scales
Mathematical modeling and quantitative study of biological motility (in particular, of motility at microscopic scales) is producing new biophysical insight and is offering opportunities for new discoveries at the level of both fundamental science and technology. These range from the explanation of how complex behavior at the level of a single organism emerges from body architecture, to the understanding of collective phenomena in groups of organisms and tissues, and of how these forms of swarm intelligence can be controlled and harnessed in engineering applications, to the elucidation of processes of fundamental biological relevance at the cellular and sub-cellular level. In this paper, some of the most exciting new developments in the fields of locomotion of unicellular organisms, of soft adhesive locomotion across scales, of the study of pore translocation properties of knotted DNA, of the development of synthetic active solid sheets, of the mechanics of the unjamming transition in dense cell collectives, of the mechanics of cell sheet folding in volvocalean algae, and of the self-propulsion of topological defects in active matter are discussed. For each of these topics, we provide a brief state of the art, an example of recent achievements, and some directions for future research