10 papers · 1 filter
Memory Control of Ice Growth During Non-Equilibrium Freezing of Water
Abhigyan Hazarika, Sudeep N. Punnathanam, Biman Bagchi +1
Freezing of supercooled water is a classic non-equilibrium problem, yet the influence of thermal history on crystallization remains unclear. Using molecular dynamics simulations wi…
Fragility from Enthalpy Fluctuations and Fictive-Temperature Dynamics
Biman Bagchi
Fragility and fictive temperature are two central measures of glass formation, but their connection is usually expressed indirectly through structural relaxation times or cooling-r…
From Freezing to Terminal Packing: A Puzzle and a Paradox
Biman Bagchi
A density-functional theory developed for equilibrium freezing also produces a high-density endpoint close to terminal packing. We revisit the nonlinear Ramakrishnan--Yussouff bifu…
Theory of Handedness Selection in Helices of Chiral Polymers and Biopolymers
Biman Bagchi
Helices are among the most common ordered structures in biological and synthetic polymers, but their formation involves more than local conformational preference. A finite helix mu…
Entropic Necks, Dynamic Crossovers, and Fragility in Supercooled Liquids
Biman Bagchi
The dramatic slowdown of dynamics in supercooled liquids is accompanied by a sequence of dynamical crossovers, most notably the transition from high-temperature collision-dominated…
Living Helices in Fluctuating Polymer Chains: Cooperative Nucleation, Dynamics, and Lifetime
Biman Bagchi
Helical segments in polymer chains are often transient, finite, and dynamically evolving, yet their origin and stability remain incompletely understood. Here we develop a minimal c…
Spatial Correlations Restore Zwanzig's Mean-Field Diffusion Result in Rugged Energy Landscapes
Biman Bagchi
Transport in disordered environments is often controlled not by typical fluctuations but by rare, extreme events that dominate long-time dynamics. In such settings, Zwanzig's class…
Microscopic Pathways to Helix Formation: Packing Stabilization and Sticky Interactions in Chiral Polymer Condensates
Biman Bagchi
Helices are not generic outcomes of polymer collapse. Collapsed conformations of semiflexible polymers with isotropic attractions typically form globules, toroids, or rod-like stru…
Stiffness induced structures and morphological transitions in semiflexible polymers
Biman Bagchi
Semiflexible polymers in poor solvents exhibit a rich variety of collapsed morphologies, including globules, toroids, and rodlike bundles, arising from the competition between attr…
Effects of Dynamic Disorder on Diffusion in Rugged Energy Landscapes
Biman Bagchi
Established theoretical studies of diffusion in rugged (or rough) potential surfaces have largely focused on quenched energy landscapes. Here we study diffusion on a rugged energy…