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DY: Fachverband Dynamik und Statistische Physik
DY 24: Focus Session: New Trends in Nonequilibrium Physics – Conservation Laws and Nonreciprocal Interactions I
DY 24.6: Talk
Wednesday, March 20, 2024, 11:00–11:15, BH-N 243
Deciphering the interface laws of Turing foams — Henrik Weyer1, •Tobias Roth1, and Erwin Frey1,2 — 1Arnold Sommerfeld Center for Theoretical Physics and Center for NanoScience, Department of Physics, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Theresienstraße 37, D-80333 München, Germany — 2Max Planck School Matter to Life, Hofgartenstraße 8, D-80539 Munich, Germany
Protein pattern formation is central to the spatiotemporal self-organization of both prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells. It is also employed as a key spatial control system in the design of artificial cells. However, it remains unclear how the properties of the macroscopic, highly nonlinear reaction–diffusion patterns can be systematically linked to the underlying reaction network [1]. Here, we show—based on protein-mass conservation—that protein patterns are governed by an effective interfacial tension arising from cyclic steady-state currents of attachment and detachment at the interface. Furthermore, we recover generalized Plateau and von-Neumann laws for two-dimensional liquid foams in two-dimensional mesh patterns. This leads us to introduce “Turing foams,” which show generic behavior governed by the interplay of interfacial-tension-driven dynamics and interrupted coarsening, and that we observe experimentally in the in vitro Min protein system. Our theory offers a new ansatz to find principles of macroscopic self-organization in mass-conserving systems far from equilibrium.
[1] Halatek, J., Brauns, F. & Frey, E. Philos. Trans. R. Soc. B Biol. Sci. 373, 20170107 (2018).
Keywords: reaction-diffusion systems; protein systems; active systems; surface tension; foams