Instabilities in Complex Mixtures with a Large Number of Components

Richard P. Sear and José A. Cuesta
Phys. Rev. Lett. 91, 245701 – Published 9 December 2003

Abstract

Inside living cells are complex mixtures of thousands of components. It is hopeless to try to characterize all the individual interactions in these mixtures. Thus, we develop a statistical approach to approximating them, and examine the conditions under which the mixtures phase separate. The approach approximates the matrix of second-virial coefficients of the mixture by a random matrix, and determines the stability of the mixture from the spectrum of such random matrices.

  • Figure
  • Figure
  • Figure
  • Received 14 July 2003

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.91.245701

©2003 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Richard P. Sear1,* and José A. Cuesta2,†

  • 1Department of Physics, University of Surrey, Guildford, Surrey GU2 7XH, United Kingdom
  • 2Grupo Interdisciplinar de Sistemas Complejos (GISC), Departamento de Matemáticas, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Avenida de la Universidad 30, 28911 Leganés, Spain

  • *Electronic address: r.sear@surrey.ac.uk
  • Electronic address: cuesta@math.uc3m.es

Article Text (Subscription Required)

Click to Expand

References (Subscription Required)

Click to Expand
Issue

Vol. 91, Iss. 24 — 12 December 2003

Reuse & Permissions
Access Options
Author publication services for translation and copyediting assistance advertisement

Authorization Required


×
×

Images

×

Sign up to receive regular email alerts from Physical Review Letters

Log In

Cancel
×

Search


Article Lookup

Paste a citation or DOI

Enter a citation
×