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arXiv · 2503.14145

Capillary-driven thinning of DNA solutions

Vincenzo Calabrese·Silvia Nardone·Amy Q. Shen·Simon J. Haward
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Abstract

Capillary thinning of polymeric fluids is central to biological and industrial processes, yet the mechanisms governing thinning dynamics remain unresolved, especially for semi-flexible polymers. Using ideal solutions of semi-flexible DNA, we validate a predictive model for exponential capillary thinning that accounts for each polymer in the molecular weight distribution. For semi-flexible polymers, self-selection of the exponential time constant occurs by a fundamentally different mechanism than for highly flexible systems, and is not simply governed by the longest polymer relaxation time.

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Vincenzo Calabrese, Silvia Nardone, Amy Q. Shen, Simon J. Haward. 2025-03-18. Capillary-driven thinning of DNA solutions. https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.14145

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