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arXiv · 2308.06416

Spontaneous crumpling of active spherical shells

M. C. Gandikota·Shibananda Das·A. Cacciuto
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Abstract

The existence of a crumpled phase for self-avoiding elastic surfaces was postulated more than three decades ago using simple Flory-like scaling arguments. Despite much effort, its stability in a microscopic environment has been the subject of much debate. In this paper we show how a crumpled phase develops reliably and consistently upon subjecting a thin spherical shell to active fluctuations. We find a master curve describing how the relative volume of a shell changes with the strength of the active forces, that applies for every shell independent of size and elastic constants. Furthermore, we extract a general expression for the onset active force beyond which a shell begins to crumple. Finally, we calculate how the size exponent varies along the crumpling curve.

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M. C. Gandikota, Shibananda Das, A. Cacciuto. 2023-08-11. Spontaneous crumpling of active spherical shells. https://doi.org/10.1039/d4sm00015c

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