Understanding the Role of Particle Deformability on the Crystal and Glass formation using Two-dimensional Ring Polymer Model

Abstract

Soft matter systems are common in nature and make up nearly all the essential components necessary for life, from cells to the organelles within those cells. The ability of these soft materials to deform is crucial for the proper functioning of various biological processes, such as blood flow in our veins and arteries. It is vital to understand how deformability influences the normal functioning of these processes. We have investigated an assembly of two-dimensional (2D) polymeric non-overlapping rings via extensive molecular dynamics simulations. The main idea is to study an assembly of model particles with anisotropic deformability using polymer rings. By tuning the degree of deformability of these model deformable particles, we study the dynamic and static properties of the assembly at different densities and temperatures. This deformable particle model might correspond to an assembly of epithelial cells or similar biologically soft bodies. In the limit at which the rings are very rigid with very little deformability, one expects to see the formation of a triangular lattice by the centres of these polymer rings. On the other hand, if one increases the deformability of these polymer rings, due to increased disorder, one observes glass-like dynamical behaviour even for identically sized polymer rings. We also show a transition from a crystalline state to a disordered glassy state driven solely by particle deformability. We observe non-trivial finite-size effects in the dynamics of these glass-forming ring polymers, not seen in usual molecular glass-formers.