2024/01/24 by Mengyuan Li, Li, Meng-Yuan, Yan-Wei Li +1
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Computer Science · Engineering · #Cellular Mechanics and Interactions #FOS: Physical sciences #Microfluidic and Bio-sensing Technologies #Nonlinear Dynamics and Pattern Formation #Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2401.13375
openalex publication_date 2024/01/24 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Cell monolayers and epithelial tissues display slow dynamics during the liquid-glass transitions, a phenomenon with direct relevance to embryogenesis, tumor metastases, and wound healing. In active cells, persistent motion and cell deformation compete, significantly influencing relaxation dynamics. Here, we numerically construct the liquid-glass transition phase diagram for two-dimensional polydisperse persistent cells. We employ cage-relative measures and conduct extensive simulations to eliminate the influence of system size effects. These effects arise from long-wavelength fluctuations in nearly equilibrated cells and a combination of long-wavelength fluctuations and non-equilibrium effects in highly persistent cells. Our study unveils distinctive intermittent dynamics associated with intermittent T1 transitions in highly persistent cells, where the velocity correlates over space with a characteristic length ξ. The α relaxation time exhibits a universal power-law dependence on the irreversible T1 transition rate, Γ_\rmT1\rm irr, multiplied by \rm exp(ξ). Here, ξ vanishes in nearly equilibrated cells, and Γ_\rmT1\rm irr diminishes towards the mode-coupling glass transition point.