RT Journal Article
T1 Collective filament wrapping and nested spiral formation in active polydisperse systems
A1 Landi, Caterina
A1 Janzen, Giulia
A1 Sciortino, Francesco
A1 Russo, John
A1 Valeriani, Chantal
A1 Matoz-Fernandez, Daniel A.
AB We investigate a two-dimensional polydisperse suspension of self-propelled semiflexible filaments and reveal a collective wrapping mechanism that is absent in monodisperse systems. At intermediate activity levels, long filaments coil around shorter ones, forming nested spiral structures stabilized by filament length disparity. These assemblies generalize the single-filament spiraling seen in active systems into cooperative, multi-filament configurations. As activity increases, the nested spirals undergo structural transitions: medium-length filaments unwind, longer filaments encapsulate shorter ones, and eventually all spiral structures dissolve. This reorganization is reflected in the dynamics, where van Hove distributions uncover coexisting confined and motile filament populations. Our findings identify filament length as a key control parameter for nonequilibrium self-assembly and establish inter-filament wrapping as a minimal mechanism for hierarchical organization in active matter. This mechanism provides a simple model for the cooperative confinement and structural hierarchy observed in both biological and synthetic active systems.
PB Royal Society of Chemistry
SN 1744-683X
YR 2026
FD 2026
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/131495
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/131495
LA eng
NO Landi, Caterina, et al. «Collective Filament Wrapping and Nested Spiral Formation in Active Polydisperse Systems». Soft Matter, vol. 22, n.o 3, enero de 2026, pp. 814-22. pubs.rsc.org, https://doi.org/10.1039/D5SM00783F.
NO Comunidad de Madrid
NO Universidad Complutense de Madrid
NO Ministerio de Economía, Comercio y Empresa (MINECO) (España)
DS Docta Complutense
RD 27 feb 2026