Collective motion of driven semiflexible filaments tuned by soft repulsion and stiffness

Here we use simulations of driven filaments with tunable soft repulsion and rigidity in order to better understand how the interplay between filament flexibility and steric effects can lead to different active dynamic states.

How soft repulsion enhances the depletion mechanism

Asymmetric soft binary mixtures experience a much enhanced depletion attraction if compared with the Asakura--Oosawa (AO) model. We show that soft mixtures cannot be mapped onto hard systems and hence soft depletion is not a mere extension of the widely used AO potential.