2016/02/29 by Jonas Denk, Lorenz Huber, Emanuel Reithmann +1 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #cond-mat.soft #cond-mat.stat-mech #nlin.PS
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.116.178301
published as Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 178301 (2016) · 3 figures in the main text, 4 figures in the supplemental material
arxiv created 2016/02/29 · arxiv updated 2016/04/27
Recent in vitro experiments with FtsZ polymers show self-organization into different dynamic patterns, including structures reminiscent of the bacterial Z-ring. We model FtsZ polymers as active particles moving along chiral, circular paths by Brownian dynamics simulations and a Boltzmann approach. Our two conceptually different methods point to a generic phase behavior. At intermediate particle densities, we find self-organization into vortex structures including closed rings. Moreover, we show that the dynamics at the onset of pattern formation is described by a generalized complex Ginzburg-Landau equation.