Thermally active nanoparticle clusters enslaved by engineered domain wall traps

The stable assembly of fluctuating nanoparticle clusters on a surface represents a technological challenge of widespread interest for both fundamental and applied research. Here we demonstrate a technique to stably confine in two dimensions clusters of interacting nanoparticles via size-tunable, virtual magnetic traps. We use cylindrical Bloch walls arranged to form a triangular lattice of ferromagnetic domains within an epitaxially grown ferrite garnet film. At each domain, the magnetic stray field generates an effective harmonic potential with a field tunable stiffness. The experiments are combined with theory to show that the magnetic confinement is effectively harmonic and pairwise interactions are of dipolar nature, leading to central, strictly repulsive forces. For clusters of magnetic nanoparticles, the stationary collective states arise from the competition between repulsion, confinement and the tendency to fill the central potential well. Using a numerical simulation model as a quantitative map between the experiments and theory we explore the field-induced crystallization process for larger clusters and unveil the existence of three different dynamical regimes. The present method provides a model platform for investigations of the collective phenomena emerging when strongly confined nanoparticle clusters are forced to move in an idealized, harmonic-like potential

Regulating wave front dynamics from the strongly discrete to the continuum limit in magnetically driven colloidal systems

The emergence of wave fronts in dissipative driven systems is a fascinating phenomenon which can be found in a broad range of physical and biological disciplines. Here we report the direct experimental observation of discrete fronts propagating along chains of paramagnetic colloidal particles, the latter propelled above a traveling wave potential generated by a structured magnetic substrate. We develop a rigorously reduced theoretical framework and describe the dynamics of the system in terms of a generalized one-dimensional dissipative Frenkel-Kontorova model. The front dynamics is explored in a wide range of field parameters close to and far from depinning, where the discrete and continuum limits apply. We show how symmetry breaking and finite size of chains are used to control the direction of front propagation, a universal feature relevant to different systems and important for real applications

Collective directional locking of colloidal monolayers on a periodic substrate

We investigate the directional locking effects that arise when a monolayer of paramagnetic colloidal particles is driven across a triangular lattice of magnetic bubbles. We use an external rotating magnetic field to generate a two-dimensional traveling wave ratchet forcing the transport of particles along a direction that intersects two crystallographic axes of the lattice. We find that, while single particles show no preferred direction, collective effects induce transversal current and directional locking at high density via a spontaneous symmetry breaking. The colloidal current may be polarized via an additional bias field that makes one transport direction energetically preferred

Steady Stokes flow with long-range correlations, fractal Fourier spectrum, and anomalous transport

We consider viscous two-dimensional steady flows of incompressible fluids past doubly periodic arrays of solid obstacles. In a class of such flows, the autocorrelations for the Lagrangian observables decay in accordance with the power law, and the Fourier spectrum is neither discrete nor absolutely continuous. We demonstrate that spreading of the droplet of tracers in such flows is anomalously fast. Since the flow is equivalent to the integrable Hamiltonian system with 1 degree of freedom, this provides an example of integrable dynamics with long-range correlations, fractal power spectrum, and anomalous transport properties.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, published in Physical Review Letter

Particle entrapment as a feedback effect

We consider a suspension of polarizable particles under the action of traveling wave dielectrophoresis (DEP) and focus on particle induced effects. In a situation where the particles are driven by the DEP force, but no external forces are exerted on the fluid, the joint motion of the particles can induce a steady fluid flow, which leads to particle entrapment. This feedback effect is proven to be non-negligible even for small volume concentration of particles.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, submitte

PIKES Analysis Reveals Response to Degraders and Key Regulatory Mechanisms of the CRL4 Network

Co-opting Cullin4 RING ubiquitin ligases (CRL4s) to inducibly degrade pathogenic proteins is emerging as a promising therapeutic strategy. Despite intense efforts to rationally design degrader molecules that co-opt CRL4s, much about the organization and regulation of these ligases remains elusive. Here, we establish protein interaction kinetics and estimation of stoichiometries (PIKES) analysis, a systematic proteomic profiling platform that integrates cellular engineering, affinity purification, chemical stabilization, and quantitative mass spectrometry to investigate the dynamics of interchangeable multiprotein complexes. Using PIKES, we show that ligase assemblies of Cullin4 with individual substrate receptors differ in abundance by up to 200-fold and that Cand1/2 act as substrate receptor exchange factors. Furthermore, degrader molecules can induce the assembly of their cognate CRL4, and higher expression of the associated substrate receptor enhances degrader potency. Beyond the CRL4 network, we show how PIKES can reveal systems level biochemistry for cellular protein networks important to drug development