2017/08/13 by Di Zhou, Leyou Zhang, Xiaoming Mao · 65 citations
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Engineering · Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Fluorescence Microscopy Techniques #Advanced Materials and Mechanics #Cellular Mechanics and Interactions #Computer science #Condensed matter physics #Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution #Fiber #Materials science #Mathematics #Perturbation (astronomy) #Physics #Quantum mechanics #Telecommunications #Topology (electrical circuits) #cond-mat.dis-nn #cond-mat.mes-hall #cond-mat.soft #physics.bio-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.120.068003
published in Physical Review Letters 120(6), 068003 (American Physical Society) · 11 pages, 6 figures
arxiv created 2017/08/13 · openalex publication_date 2018/02/08 · arxiv updated 2018/02/14 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
Disordered fiber networks are ubiquitous in a broad range of natural (e.g., cytoskeleton) and manmade (e.g., aerogels) materials. In this Letter, we discuss the emergence of topological floppy edge modes in two-dimensional fiber networks as a result of deformation or active driving. It is known that a network of straight fibers exhibits bulk floppy modes which only bend the fibers without stretching them. We find that, interestingly, with a perturbation in geometry, these bulk modes evolve into edge modes. We introduce a topological index for these edge modes and discuss their implications in biology.