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Bio Polymers and Active Matter

Polymers and biomolecules moving through disordered media are both interesting from a scientific standpoint and of technological relevance. We are exploring though numerical simulations polymers moving through random and structured substrates. Several key issues we want to explore with the random substrates include how long it takes a polymer to align with an applied field, as well as whether there is a critical disorder strength for the realignment to occur. Also, we are studying how the mobility of the polymers depends on their length and elastic strength, as well as on the strength of the disorder. For polymers moving through structured substrates we are seeking the optimal geometry for separating different polymer lengths. Some geometries we are studying include various types of ratchets. Another approach is to use fractal geometries in order to make a novel type of "fractal ratchet." We are also working on active matter such as swimming bacteria.

Papers:

  1. Bidirectional sorting of flocking partilces in the presence of asymmetric barriers
    J.A. Drocco C.J. Olson Reichhardt and C. Reichhardt
    Phys. Rev. E 85 056102 (2012)
    Online version

  2. Dynamical freezing of active matter
    C. Reichhardt and C.J. Olson Reichhardt
    PNAS 108 19099 (2011)

  3. Active matter on asymmetric substrates
    C.J. Olson Reichhartd, J. Drocco, T. Mai, M.B. Wan and C. Reichhardt
    Proc. SPIE 8097 8097A (2011)
    Online version

  4. Rectification of swimming bacteria and self driven particle systems by arrays of asymmetric barriers
    M.B. Wan, C.J. Olson Reichhardt, Z. Nussinov and C. Reichhardt
    Phys. Rev. Lett 100 187002 (2008)
    Online version

  5. Electrophoresis of DNA on a disordered two-dimensional substrate
    C.J. Olson Reichhardt and C. Reichhardt
    Phys. Rev. E 74 051908 (2006)
    Online version

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