title: Kinks, rings, and rackets in filamentous structures.
abstract: Carbon nanotubes and biological filaments each spontaneously assemble into kinked helices, rings, and "tennis racket" shapes due to competition between elastic and interfacial effects. We show that the slender geometry is a more important determinant of the morphology than any molecular details. Our mesoscopic continuum theory is capable of quantifying observations of these structures and is suggestive of their occurrence in other filamentous assemblies as well.
authors.affiliation: Semiconductor Physics Group, Cavendish Laboratory, Wilberforce Road, Cambridge University, Cambridge CB3 0WA, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Adam E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Cohen
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Mahadevan
mesh_terms: D000177:Acrosome / Q000737:chemistry; D000818:Animals; D055592:Biophysical Phenomena; D001703:Biophysics; D001704:Biopolymers / Q000737:chemistry*; D004548:Elasticity; D006451:Hemoglobin, Sickle / Q000737:chemistry; D006801:Humans; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D008297:Male; D008854:Microscopy, Electron; D008968:Molecular Conformation; D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon / Q000737:chemistry*; D013816:Thermodynamics; D014404:Tubulin / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D001704:Biopolymers; D006451:Hemoglobin, Sickle; D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon; D014404:Tubulin