Scaling law and universal drop size distribution of coarsening in conversion-limited phase separation
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Lee, Chiu Fan
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Phase separation is not only ubiquitous in diverse physical systems, but also plays an important organizational role inside biological cells. However, experimental studies of intracellular condensates (drops with condensed concentrations of specific collections of proteins and nucleic acids) have challenged the standard coarsening theories of phase separation. Specifically, the coarsening rates observed are unexpectedly slow for many intracellular condensates. Recently, Folkmann et al. [Science 373, 1218 (2021)] argued that the slow coarsening rate can be caused by the slow conversion of a condensate constituent between the state in the dilute phase and the condensate state. One implication of this conversion-limited picture is that standard theories of coarsening in phase separation (Lifshitz-Slyozov-Wagner theory of Ostwald ripening and drop coalescence schemes) no longer apply. Surprisingly, I show here that the model equations of conversion-limited phase separation can instead be mapped onto a grain growth model in a single-phase material in three dimensions. I further elucidate the universal coarsening behavior in the late stage using analytical and numerical methods.
Date Issued
2021-10-28
Date Acceptance
2021-10-21
Citation
Physical Review Research, 2021, 3, pp.1-6
ISSN
2643-1564
Publisher
American Physical Society
Start Page
1
End Page
6
Journal / Book Title
Physical Review Research
Volume
3
Copyright Statement
© 2021 The Author(s). Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.
Identifier
https://journals.aps.org/prresearch/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.3.043081
Subjects
Science & Technology
Physical Sciences
Physics, Multidisciplinary
Physics
DYNAMICS
KINETICS
GROWTH
ORDER
cond-mat.soft
cond-mat.soft
physics.bio-ph
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2021-10-28