Regensburg 2010 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 32: Posters: Physics of Cells

BP 32.36: Poster

Donnerstag, 25. März 2010, 17:15–20:00, Poster B1

Instabilities of Active Polar Gels in a Taylor-Couette Geometry — •Marc Neef and Karsten Kruse — Theoretische Physik, Universität des Saarlandes, 66041 Saarbrücken

In many physiologically relevant situations, the dynamics of the cytoskeleton or of tissues in developing organisms occur in a confined geometry. From a physical point of view, both systems, the cytoskeleton of eukaryotic cells as well as ensembles of crawling cells, fall into the class of active polar gels. The generic behavior of such systems is captured by hydrodynamic equations that account for activity, stress generating processes and polar order. We employ the hydrodynamic theory to study instabilities of active polar gels confined to the space between two coaxial rotating cylinders, i.e., a Taylor-Couette geometry. In particular, we analyse the stability of states with orthoradial polarity and find that the system's activity together with its polarity can generate instabilities even in situations when neither of the cylinders rotates.