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Generic Phases Of Cross-Linked Active Gels: Relaxation, Oscillation And Contractility, Shiladitya Banerjee, Tanniemola B. Liverpool, M. C. Marchetti

Physics - All Scholarship

We study analytically and numerically a generic continuum model of an isotropic active solid with internal stresses generated by non-equilibrium `active' mechano-chemical reactions. Our analysis shows that the gel can be tuned through three classes of dynamical states by increasing motor activity: a constant unstrained state of homogeneous density, a state where the local density exhibits sustained oscillations, and a steady-state which is spontaneously contracted, with a uniform mean density.