The Oppenheimer Group

for Soft Matter Physics, Tel Aviv University

The group focuses on soft matter physics and biophysics. Modeling complex fluids and elastic materials.

Yuval Soham

Master Student

Structural states in 2D active systems

yuvalshoham_at_mail.tau.ac.il

Research

Our research is on complex fluids, statistical mechanics, and biology-inspired physical systems. We use theoretical analytical tools, numerical simulations, and a dash of experiments

Hurricane dynamics in a membrane

We theoretically study membrane rotors such as the ATP synthases of the inner mitochondrial membrane. There is a strong resemblance between a system of rotating proteins and vortices in an ideal 2D fluid. The Hamiltonian nature of both systems allows for various conservation laws which derive particular states of matter. We show, for example, that ensembles of membrane rotors are hyperuniform, and exhibit activity-induced phase separation. In the more realistic setting where membrane rotors also interact through steric repulsion we find that initially random distributions of membrane rotors will rapidly self-organize into rotating uniform lattices.

Latest Publications

R. Bashan and N. Oppenheimer
Hydrodynamically Induced Aggregation in Two-Dimensional Active Systems.
arXiv (2023).
MY Ben Zion and N. Oppenheimer
Compact Expansion of a Repulsive Suspension.
arXiv:2302.14756 (2023).
Y. Shoham and N. Oppenheimer
Hamiltonian Dynamics and Structural States of Two-Dimensional Active Particles.
Physical Review Letters 131, 178301 (2023).
N. Oppenheimer, D. Stein, MY. Ben Zion, M. Shelley
Hyperuniformity and phase enrichment in vortex and rotor assemblies.
Nature Communications (2022). arXiv: 2103.00296.
R. Samanta, N. Oppenheimer, Vortex flows and streamline topology in curved biological membranes.
Physics of Fluids 33, 051906 (2021).
N. Oppenheimer, D. B. Stein, and M. Shelley
Rotating Membrane Inclusions Crystallize Through Hydrodynamic and Steric Interactions.
Physical Review Letters 123, 148101 (2019).
B. Rallabandi*, N. Oppenheimer*, M. Y. Ben Zion, and H. A Stone
Surfing its own wave: hydroelasticity of a particle near a membrane.
Nature Physics 14, 1211 (2018).
N. Oppenheimer and H. A. Stone
Effect of hydrodynamic interactions on reaction rates in membranes.
Biophysical Journal 113, 440-447 (2017).
N. Oppenheimer S. Navardi and H. A. Stone
Motion of a hot particle in viscous fluids
Physical Review Fluids 1, 014001 (2016).
N. Oppenheimer, and T. Witten
Shapeable sheet without plastic deformation
Physical Review E 92, 052401 (2015).
N. Tramm, N. Oppenheimer, S. Nagy, E. Efrati, and D. Biron
Why do sleeping nematodes adopt a hockey-stick-like posture?
PlosOne 9(7):e101162 (2014).
N. Oppenheimer, H. Diamant and T. A. Witten
Anomalously fast kinetics of lipid monolayer buckling
Physical Review E 88,022405 (2013).
N. Oppenheimer and H. Diamant
Dynamics of membranes with immobile inclusions
Physical Review Letters 107, 258102 (2011).
N. Oppenheimer and H. Diamant
Correlated dynamics of inclusions in a supported membrane
Physical Review E 82, 041912 (2010).
N. Oppenheimer and H. Diamant
Correlated diffusion of membrane proteins and their effect on membrane viscosity
Biophysical Journal 96, 3041-3049 (2009).