Previous research on semiflexible polymers including cytoskeletal networks in cells has suggested the existence of distinct regimes of elastic response, in which the strain field is either uniform (affine) or nonuniform (nonaffine) under external stress. Associated with these regimes, it has been further suggested that a mesoscopic length scale emerges, which characterizes the scale for the crossover from nonaffine to affine deformations. Here, we extend these studies by probing the response to localized forces and force dipoles. We show that the previously identified nonaffinity length [D. A. Head et al., Phys. Rev. E 68, 061907 (2003)] controls the mesoscopic response to point forces and the crossover to continuum elastic behavior at large distances.

• Received 27 May 2005

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.72.061914