title: Squeezed helical elastica.
abstract: We theoretically study the conformations of a helical semi-flexible filament confined to a flat surface. This squeezed helix exhibits a variety of unexpected shapes resembling circles, waves or spirals depending on the material parameters. We explore the conformation space in detail and show that the shapes can be understood as the mutual elastic interaction of conformational quasi-particles. Our theoretical results are potentially useful to determine the material parameters of such helical filaments in an experimental setting.
authors.affiliation: Département de Physique Théorique, Faculté de Physique, USTHB, El-Alia Bab-Ezzouar, BP 32, 16111, Alger, Algeria.|Laboratoire de Physique et Chimie Quantique, Université Mouloud Mammeri, BP 17, 15000, Tizi-Ouzou, Algeria.
authors.forename: Lila
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bouzar
authors.affiliation: Equipe BioPhysStat, ICPMB-FR CNRS 2843, Université de Lorraine, 1 boulevard Arago, 57070, Metz, France. Martin-Michael.Mueller@univ-lorraine.fr.|Institut Charles Sadron, CNRS-UdS, 23 rue du Loess, BP 84047, 67034, Strasbourg cedex 2, France. Martin-Michael.Mueller@univ-lorraine.fr.
authors.forename: Martin Michael
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Müller
authors.affiliation: Institut Fourier, UMR 5582 CNRS-UJF, Université Grenoble I, BP74, 38402, Saint-Martin d'Hères, France.
authors.forename: Pierre
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gosselin
authors.affiliation: Institut Charles Sadron, CNRS-UdS, 23 rue du Loess, BP 84047, 67034, Strasbourg cedex 2, France.
authors.forename: Igor M
authors.initials: IM
authors.lastname: Kulić
authors.affiliation: Equipe BioPhysStat, ICPMB-FR CNRS 2843, Université de Lorraine, 1 boulevard Arago, 57070, Metz, France.|Institut Charles Sadron, CNRS-UdS, 23 rue du Loess, BP 84047, 67034, Strasbourg cedex 2, France.
authors.forename: Hervé
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Mohrbach
keywords: Living systems: Biological Matter