The role of collective motion in examples of coarsening and self-assembly

TL;DR

This paper investigates how collective motion influences self-assembly and coarsening in molecular and colloidal systems through computer simulations, revealing that collective dynamics can both hinder and facilitate different assembly processes.

Contribution

It systematically evaluates the effects of collective motion on hierarchical assembly processes using controlled computer simulations, highlighting its contrasting roles.

Findings

Collective motion dominates coarsening in lattice gas models across various conditions.

Cluster mobility inhibits phase separation in attractive systems.

Collective moves facilitate viral capsid assembly by promoting intermediate binding.

Abstract

The simplest prescription for building a patterned structure from its constituents is to add particles, one at a time, to an appropriate template. However, self-organizing molecular and colloidal systems in nature can evolve in much more hierarchical ways. Specifically, constituents (or clusters of constituents) may aggregate to form clusters (or clusters of clusters) that serve as building blocks for later stages of assembly. Here we evaluate the character and consequences of such collective motion in a set of prototypical assembly processes. We do so using computer simulations in which a system's capacity for hierarchical dynamics can be controlled systematically. By explicitly allowing or suppressing collective motion, we quantify its effects. We find that coarsening within a two dimensional attractive lattice gas (and an analogous off-lattice model in three dimensions) is naturally dominated by collective motion over a broad range of temperatures and densities. Under such circumstances, cluster mobility inhibits the development of uniform coexisting phases, especially when macroscopic segregation is strongly favored by thermodynamics. By contrast, the assembly of model viral capsids is not frustrated but is instead facilitated by collective moves, which promote the orderly binding of intermediates consisting of several monomers.