Dresden 2026 – wissenschaftliches Programm
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CPP: Fachverband Chemische Physik und Polymerphysik
CPP 17: Poster I
CPP 17.2: Poster
Montag, 9. März 2026, 19:00–21:00, P5
Effects of Activity on Polymeric Condensates — •Rahul Yadav1 and Arash Nikoubashman1,2 — 1Leibniz-Institut für Polymerforschung Dresden e.V., 01069 Dresden, Germany — 2Institut für Theoretische Physik, Technische Universität Dresden, 01069 Dresden, Germany
Biological systems are inherently out of equilibrium as external sources of energy are constantly consumed; for example, microtubules and filamentous actin seemingly move through the cytoplasmic matrix via the continuous addition and removal of subunits. At the same time, equilibrium thermodynamic properties, governed by the interactions and length scales of the (macro)molecular constituents, play a central role in phenomena such as the formation of biomolecular condensates. A central open question is whether such non-equilibrium activity enhances phase separation or, conversely, hinders it. To answer this, we performed molecular dynamics simulations of a bead-spring polymer model, systematically varying both the attrac- tion strength and activity. When the active forces act along the contour of the polymer, the miscibility gap narrows and the critical temperature decreases with increasing activity, indicat- ing that this form of activity opposes phase separation. Based on these observations, we expect that contractile active forces will instead broaden the miscibility gap and increase the critical temperature, and we plan to test this prediction in future work.
Keywords: condensates; active polymers; phase separation; diffusion; biomolecules