Random traction yielding transition in epithelial tissues

Abstract

We investigate how randomly oriented cell traction forces lead to fluidisation in a vertex model of epithelial tissues. We find that the fluidisation occurs at a critical value of the traction force magnitude $F_c$. We show that this transition exhibits critical behaviour, similar to the yielding transition of sheared amorphous solids. However, we find that it belongs to a different universality class, even though it satisfies the same scaling relations between critical exponents established in the yielding transition of sheared amorphous solids. Our work provides a fluidisation mechanism through active force generation that could be relevant in biological tissues.

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• Scaling description of the yielding transition in soft amorphous solids at zero temperature
• How active forces influence nonequilibrium glass transitions
• Avalanches, loading and finite size effects in 2D amorphous plasticity: results from a finite element model