title: Self-limited self-assembly of chiral filaments.
abstract: We discuss dynamical simulations and free energy calculations on patchy spheres with chiral pair interactions that spontaneously assemble into filamentous bundles. The chirality frustrates long-range crystal order by introducing twist between interacting subunits. For some ranges of system parameters this constraint leads to bundles with a finite diameter, and in other cases frustration is relieved by the formation of defects. While some self-limited structures can be modeled as twisted filaments arranged with local hexagonal symmetry, other structures are surprisingly complex.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts 02454, USA.
authors.forename: Yasheng
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Robert B
authors.initials: RB
authors.lastname: Meyer
authors.forename: Michael F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Hagan
mesh_terms: D003460:Crystallization; D003599:Cytoskeleton / Q000737:chemistry*; D008954:Models, Biological; D013237:Stereoisomerism