Talk by Prof. David Svintradze

Title: Generalizing Ostwald Ripening

Professor David V. Svintradze

School of Medicine, New Vision University, Tbilisi, Georgia

Abstract: It is known that large particles are more energetically favorable than small particles, leading to the phenomenon of Ostwald ripening, where small crystals dissolve and redeposit on larger ones, causing the larger particles to grow at the expense of the smaller ones. However, the Ostwald principle applies strictly only to spherical particles, leaving a question about how non-spherical particles behave. With the growing interest in liquid/liquid phase separation in biology, we have generalized the Ostwald ripening phenomena by applying the generalized Young-Laplace, Kelvin, and Gibbs-Thomson equations. Our findings show that shape-changing systems behave similarly to living matter, self-regulating growth and division and governing pattern formation on the surface. By solving these problems, we have demonstrated that surface dynamics induce the growth of tiny droplets to larger ones and the fission of large ones to smaller particles, resulting in fluctuation in both shapes and volumes. This shape and corresponding membrane dynamics govern phase separations, inducing living cell behavior such as growth, division, membrane formation, and pattern formation on dynamic membranes. To illustrate this, we provide a few numerical solutions for shape-changing spheres that mimic cell shape changes and patterning.