This paper describes self-assembly of millimeter-sized, magnetized disks floating on a liquid-air interface, and rotating under the influence of a rotating external magnetic field. Spinning of the disks results in hydrodynamic repulsion between them, while the rotating magnetic field produces an average confining potential acting on all disks. The interplay between hydrodynamic and magnetic int...

The effective capillary interaction potentials for small colloidal particles trapped at the surface of liquid droplets are calculated analytically. Pair potentials between capillary monopoles and dipoles, corresponding to particles floating on a droplet with a fixed center of mass and subjected to external forces and torques, respectively, exhibit a repulsion at large angular separations and an...

The six-vertex lattice model is augmented with ionic vertices and bonding defects. These represent sources and sinks for hydrogen atoms, and the extra vertices account for the pH of water. This 14-vertex lattice model with Bjerrum bond defects represents a not unrealistic model of ice, and possibly also of structured water next to a surface. Such surfaces polarise the adjacent molecules, which ...

We introduce a force-directed algorithm, called Sync-andBurst, which falls into the category of classical force-directed graph drawing algorithms. A distinct feature in Sync-and-Burst is the use of simplified forces of attraction and repulsion whose magnitude does not depend on the distance between vertices. Instead, magnitudes are uniform throughout the graph at each iteration and monotonicall...

Neurotransmitter release from neuronal terminals is governed by synaptic vesicle fusion. Vesicles filled with transmitters are docked at the neuronal membrane by means of the SNARE machinery. After a series of events leading up to the fusion pore formation, neurotransmitters are released into the synaptic cleft. In this paper, we study the mechanics of the docking process. A continuum model is ...

(F-) actin or microtubules belong to the class of semiflexible polymers. The biological function of these polymers requires considerable mechanical rigidity. For example, actin filaments are the main structural elements of the cytoskeleton in which actin filaments form a network rigid enough to maintain the shape of the cell and to transmit forces, yet flexible enough to allow for cell motion a...

Understanding charged particle adhesion forces is a critical step in the understanding and modeling of electrophotographic printing processes. Electrostatic and mechanical (Van der Waals) forces are both significant contributors to toner adhesion to substrates, and previous work has shown these to have roughly equivalent magnitudes in modern printer designs. Measuring distributions of toner adh...

The various interaction forces that govern the stability/flocculation of concentrated suspensions are briefly described. Combination of these interactions result in three main energy-distance curves which determine the final state of the suspension. This ranges from colloidally stable to strongly flocculated (coagulated) suspensions. A schematic representation of the various states of suspensio...

We investigate critical phenomena in colloids by means of the renormalization-group based hierarchical reference theory of fluids. We focus on three experimentally relevant model systems: namely, the Asakura-Oosawa model of a colloidal dispersion under the influence of polymer-induced attractive depletion forces; fluids with competing short-range attractive and longer-range repulsive interactio...

A time-resolved method for tip' retraction at micros-scale away from dielectric surfaces has been developed. Analysis of the forces in the system comprising AFM tip, water meniscus, and polymer film suggests that an electrostatic repulsion of the tip from the surface in the double-layered (water and polymer) system, and water condensation in the tip-surface junction are the dominant factors ena...