Confinement Controls the Bend Instability of Three-Dimensional Active Liquid Crystals.

Autor:	Chandrakar P; Department of Physics, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts 02453, USA.; Department of Physics, University of California at Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California 93106, USA., Varghese M; Department of Physics, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts 02453, USA., Aghvami SA; Department of Physics, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts 02453, USA., Baskaran A; Department of Physics, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts 02453, USA., Dogic Z; Department of Physics, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts 02453, USA.; Department of Physics, University of California at Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California 93106, USA., Duclos G; Department of Physics, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts 02453, USA.
Jazyk:	angličtina
Zdroj:	Physical review letters [Phys Rev Lett] 2020 Dec 18; Vol. 125 (25), pp. 257801.
DOI:	10.1103/PhysRevLett.125.257801
Abstrakt:	Spontaneous growth of long-wavelength deformations is a defining feature of active liquid crystals. We investigate the effect of confinement on the instability of 3D active liquid crystals in the isotropic phase composed of extensile microtubule bundles and kinesin molecular motors. When shear aligned, such fluids exhibit finite-wavelength self-amplifying bend deformations. By systematically changing the channel size we elucidate how the instability wavelength and its growth rate depend on the channel dimensions. Experimental findings are qualitatively consistent with a minimal hydrodynamic model, where the fastest growing deformation is set by a balance of active driving and elastic relaxation. Our results demonstrate that confinement determines the structure and dynamics of active fluids on all experimentally accessible length scales.
Databáze:	MEDLINE
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