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Updated: Jun 8, 2026

Cell Patterning Using Magnetic-Archimedes Strategy
Published on: February 2, 2024
Model for dynamic self-assembled magnetic surface structures
1Department of Chemical Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208, USA.
Abstract:
We propose a first-principles model for the dynamic self-assembly of magnetic structures at a water-air interface reported in earlier experiments. The model is based on the Navier-Stokes equation for liquids in shallow water approximation coupled to Newton equations for interacting magnetic particles suspended at a water-air interface. The model reproduces most of the observed phenomenology, including spontaneous formation of magnetic snakelike structures, generation of large-scale vortex flows, complex ferromagnetic-antiferromagnetic ordering of the snake, and self-propulsion of bead-snake hybrids.
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