[grads] [Sem-coll] Applied Math Colloquium Feb 11

[Joe Millham]

Greetings everyone,

Please join the Applied Mathematics department for the following
Colloquium on Monday, February 11 at 4:40pm in E1 106.  For those
registered in Math 593, this is a required event.  Refreshments will
be served.

Igor Aronson, Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory
"Self-organization of microtubules interacting with molecular motors
and crosslinks"
E1 Room 106 4:40pm

Abstract:
A central question in biology concerns the origin of highly-organized
self-assembled macroscopic structures from initially disordered
states. The mixture of long and rigid microtubules and dynamic
molecular motors constitutes a unique well-controlled system which is
relavant to a variery of applications, from self-assembeld biosensors
to biomemetic materials. In vitro experiments on self-assembly of
motors and microtubules in quasi-two-dimensional geometry revealed a
variety of spontaneous large-scale patterns: ray-like asters, rotating
vortices and filament bundles. Motivated by these experiments, we
derive from microscopic interaction rules a model describing
spatio-temporal organization of an array of microtubules interacting
with dynamic molecular motors and static crosslinks. Starting from a
generic stochastic microscopic model of inelastic polar rods, we
obtain a set of equations for the local rods concentration and
orientation. Above a certain critical density of the rods, the model
exhibits spontaneous orientational phase transition and the onset of
large-scale coherence. We demonstrate that this orientational
transition leads to the formation of vortices, asters, and bundles
seen in recent experiments.

See you there!

--
Joe Millham
Administrative Assistant
Department of Applied Mathematics
Illinois Institute of Technology
10 W. 33rd St.
Chicago IL 60616
312.567.8984
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