2005/05/31 by D. A. Head, David Head, Alex J. Levine +2 · 2 citations
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Physics and Astronomy · #Cellular Mechanics and Interactions #Force Microscopy Techniques and Applications #Microtubule and mitosis dynamics #cond-mat.mtrl-sci #cond-mat.soft
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physreve.72.061914
16 pages, 18 figures; substantial changes to text and figures to clarify the crossover to continuum elasticity and the role of finite-size effects
arxiv created 2005/09/20 · openalex publication_date 2005/12/20 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
Previous research on semiflexible polymers including cytoskeletal networks in cells has suggested the existence of distinct regimes of elastic response, in which the strain field is either uniform (affine) or nonuniform (nonaffine) under external stress. Associated with these regimes, it has been further suggested that a mesoscopic length scale emerges, which characterizes the scale for the crossover from nonaffine to affine deformations. Here, we extend these studies by probing the response to localized forces and force dipoles. We show that the previously identified nonaffinity length [D. A. Head, Phys. Rev. E 68, 061907 (2003)] controls the mesoscopic response to point forces and the crossover to continuum elastic behavior at large distances.