title: Activity-induced collapse and reexpansion of rigid polymers.
abstract: We study the elastic properties of a rigid filament in a bath of self-propelled particles. We find that while fully flexible filaments swell monotonically upon increasing the strength of the propelling force, rigid filaments soften for moderate activities, collapse into metastable hairpins for intermediate strengths, and eventually reexpand when the strength of the activity of the surrounding fluid is large. This collapse and reexpansion of the filament with the bath activity is reminiscent of the behavior observed in polyelectrolytes in the presence of different concentrations of multivalent salt.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Columbia University, 3000 Broadway, New York, New York 10027, USA.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Harder
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Quimica Fisica, Facultad de Ciencias Quimicas, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Valeriani
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Columbia University, 3000 Broadway, New York, New York 10027, USA.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cacciuto