{
  "abstract": "Understanding how liquid-liquid phase separation impacts the mechanics of filament networks is a fundamental physical problem at the heart of biological cellular processes and soft material design. While a few theoretical mechanisms have been proposed, a clear demonstration of the direct coupling of phase separation to the overall network stiffness is missing. We report experiments that reveal a universal mechanism by which the condensation of macromolecular crowders induces a rigidity transition in a model filament network. We reconstituted stiff sterically interacting helical filaments and polymeric crowders. Initially, the macromolecules were uniformly dissolved and the filaments formed bundles that assembled a rigid entangled network. Once the crowders condensed into droplets, the network structure lost its rigidity and its mechanical response weakened by an order-of-magnitude. The subsequent dissolution of the condensates was accompanied by the re-establishment of rigidity. Our results show that crowder phase separation modulates the mechanics of filament networks by tuning the osmotic pressure holding the network together. This principle may serve as a paradigm for devising dynamically tunable filamentous materials.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": "2609.26983",
  "author_total": 5,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Jiyong Cheon"
    },
    {
      "name": "Zhengyan Lin"
    },
    {
      "name": "Dean Kim"
    },
    {
      "name": "Anirudh Malli"
    },
    {
      "name": "Itamar Kolvin"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/73fea015wzme5.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.48550/arxiv.2609.26983",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "73fea015wzme5",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.26983",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": "CC0-1.0",
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "arxiv",
      "cond-mat.mtrl-sci"
    ],
    [
      "arxiv",
      "cond-mat.soft"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "1307|Cellular Mechanics and Interactions"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7214214120",
  "pdf_url": "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2609.26983",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-09-24",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/73fea015wzme5.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:24:11Z",
      "native_id": "2609.26983",
      "source": "arxiv",
      "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.26983"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "physics",
      "origin": "arxiv:cond-mat.mtrl-sci",
      "subfield": "condensed-matter"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Control of filament network rigidity by the condensation of crowding molecules",
  "title_text": "Control of filament network rigidity by the condensation of crowding molecules",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:24:11Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/73fea015wzme5",
  "venue": "arXiv",
  "versions": []
}