848 research outputs found
A minimal integer automaton behind crystal plasticity
Power law fluctuations and scale free spatial patterns are known to
characterize steady state plastic flow in crystalline materials. In this Letter
we study the emergence of correlations in a simple Frenkel-Kontorova (FK) type
model of 2D plasticity which is largely free of arbitrariness, amenable to
analytical study and is capable of generating critical exponents matching
experiments. Our main observation concerns the possibility to reduce continuum
plasticity to an integer valued automaton revealing inherent discreteness of
the plastic flow.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure
Volume changes during active shape fluctuations in cells
Cells modify their volume in response to changes in osmotic pressure but it
is usually assumed that other active shape variations do not involve
significant volume fluctuations. Here we report experiments demonstrating that
water transport in and out of the cell is needed for the formation of blebs,
commonly observed protrusions in the plasma membrane driven by cortex
contraction. We develop and simulate a model of fluid mediated membrane-cortex
deformations and show that a permeable membrane is necessary for bleb formation
which is otherwise impaired. Taken together our experimental and theoretical
results emphasize the subtle balance between hydrodynamics and elasticity in
actively driven cell morphological changes.Comment: Phys. Rev. Lett. in press. 13 pages 4 figures, 9 supplementary
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