Annealing a Magnetic Cactus into Phyllotaxis

Details Annealing a Magnetic Cactus into Phyllotaxis Annealing a Magnetic Cactus into Phyllotaxis

2010-02-03

arxiv.org/abs/1002.0622v1

Physics

Condensed Matter

Soft Condensed Matter

9 Pages 11 Figures

Scientific paper

The appearance of mathematical regularities in the disposition of leaves on a stem, scales on a pine-cone and spines on a cactus has puzzled scholars for millennia; similar so-called phyllotactic patterns are seen in self-organized growth, polypeptides, convection, magnetic flux lattices and ion beams. Levitov showed that a cylindrical lattice of repulsive particles can reproduce phyllotaxis under the (unproved) assumption that minimum of energy would be achieved by 2-D Bravais lattices. Here we provide experimental and numerical evidence that the Phyllotactic lattice is actually a ground state. When mechanically annealed, our experimental "magnetic cactus" precisely reproduces botanical phyllotaxis, along with domain boundaries (called transitions in Botany) between different phyllotactic patterns. We employ a structural genetic algorithm to explore the more general axially unconstrained case, which reveals multijugate (multiple spirals) as well as monojugate (single spiral) phyllotaxis.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Annealing a Magnetic Cactus into Phyllotaxis does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Annealing a Magnetic Cactus into Phyllotaxis, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Annealing a Magnetic Cactus into Phyllotaxis will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-600814