Forceless Sadowsky strips are spherical
arXiv:1802.02472 · doi:10.1103/PhysRevE.97.023001
Abstract
We show that thin rectangular ribbons, defined as energy-minimising configurations of the Sadowsky functional for narrow developable elastic strips, have a propensity to form spherical shapes in the sense that forceless solutions lie on a sphere. This has implications for ribbonlike objects in (bio)polymer physics and nanoscience that cannot be described by the classical wormlike chain model. A wider class of functionals with this property is identified.
15 pages, 4 figures