Publications by authors named "Guntars Kitenbergs"
Magnetic filaments driven by external magnetic field are an interesting topic of research in-terms of the possible bio-medical applications. In this paper, we investigated the applicability of using ferromagnetic filaments as micro swimmers both experimentally and numerically. It was found that applying a pulse wave field profile with a duty cycle of 30[Formula: see text] induced experimentally observable swimming, which is similar to the breast stroke of micro algae.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFerromagnetic filaments in a rotating magnetic field are studied both numerically and experimentally. The filaments are made from micron-sized ferromagnetic particles linked with DNA strands. It is found that at low frequencies of the rotating field, a filament rotates synchronously with the field and beyond a critical frequency, it undergoes a transition to a three dimensional regime.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArticle Synopsis
- Filamentous polyelectrolytes, like the Pf1 virus, can aggregate into bundles due to interactions with multivalent counterions, leading to the formation of a gel phase even at low concentrations.
- The gelation of Pf1 can occur at just 0.04% volume fraction, significantly lower than the 0.7% required for the transition from isotropic to nematic phases in solutions with monovalent salt.
- Unlike traditional strong gels that stiffen under strain, Pf1 gels exhibit a unique behavior of softening at high strain, with this softening occurring based on how strongly the counterions interact with the polyelectrolyte.