1,185 research outputs found
Packing defects and the width of biopolymer bundles
The formation of bundles composed of actin filaments and cross-linking
proteins is an essential process in the maintenance of the cells' cytoskeleton.
It has also been recreated by in-vitro experiments, where actin networks are
routinely produced to mimic and study the cellular structures. It has long been
observed that these bundles seem to have a well defined width distribution,
which has not been adequately described theoretically. We propose here that
packing defects of the filaments, quenched and random, contribute an effective
repulsion that counters the cross-linking adhesion energy and leads to a well
defined bundle width. This is a two-dimensional strain-field version of the
classic Rayleigh instability of charged droplets
Theory of Drop Formation
We consider the motion of an axisymmetric column of Navier-Stokes fluid with
a free surface. Due to surface tension, the thickness of the fluid neck goes to
zero in finite time. After the singularity, the fluid consists of two halves,
which constitute a unique continuation of the Navier-Stokes equation through
the singular point. We calculate the asymptotic solutions of the Navier-Stokes
equation, both before and after the singularity. The solutions have scaling
form, characterized by universal exponents as well as universal scaling
functions, which we compute without adjustable parameters
Quantum Reciprocity Conjecture for the Non-Equilibrium Steady State
By considering the lack of history dependence in the non-equilibrium steady
state of a quantum system we are led to conjecture that in such a system, there
is a set of quantum mechanical observables whose retarded response functions
are insensitive to the arrow of time, and which consequently satisfy a quantum
analog of the Onsager reciprocity relations. Systems which satisfy this
conjecture can be described by an effective Free energy functional. We
demonstrate that the conjecture holds in a resonant level model of a multi-lead
quantum dot.Comment: References revised to take account of related work on Onsager
reciprocity in mesoscopics by Christen, and in hydrodynamics by Mclennan,
Dufty and Rub
Non-diffracting Optical Beams in a Three-level Raman System
Diffractionless propagation of optical beams through atomic vapors is
investigated. The atoms in the vapor are operated in a three-level Raman
configuration. A suitably chosen control beam couples to one of the
transitions, and thereby creates a spatially varying index of refraction
modulation in the warm atomic vapor for a probe beam which couples to the other
transition in the atoms. We show that a Laguerre-Gaussian control beam allows
to propagate single Gaussian probe field modes as well as multi-Gaussian modes
and non-Gaussian modes over macroscopic distances without diffraction. This
opens perspectives for the propagation of arbitrary images through warm atomic
vapors.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figure
Bubble Pinch-Off in a Rotating Flow
We create air bubbles at the tip of a “bathtub vortex” which reaches to a finite depth. The bathtub vortex is formed by letting water drain through a small hole at the bottom of a rotating cylindrical container. The tip of the needlelike surface dip is unstable at high rotation rates and releases bubbles which are carried down by the flow. Using high-speed imaging we find that the minimal neck radius of the unstable tip decreases in time as a power law with an exponent close to 1/3. This exponent was found by Gordillo et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 194501 (2005)] to govern gas flow driven pinch-off, and indeed we find that the volume oscillations of the tip creates a considerable air flow through the neck. We argue that the Bernoulli pressure reduction caused by this air flow can become sufficient to overcome the centrifugal forces and cause the final pinch-off
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