  We study the assembly into a gel network of colloidal particles, via
effective interactions that yield local rigidity and make dilute network
structures mechanically stable. The self-assembly process can be described by a
Flory-Huggins theory, until a network of chains forms, whose mesh size is on
the order of, or smaller than, the persistence length of the chains. The
localization of the particles in the network, akin to some extent to caging in
dense glasses, is determined by the network topology, and the network
restructuring, which takes place via bond breaking and recombination, is
characterized by highly cooperative dynamics. We use NVE and NVT Molecular
Dynamics as well as Langevin Dynamics and find a qualitatively similar time
dependence of time correlations and of the dynamical susceptibility of the
restructuring gel. This confirms that the cooperative dynamics emerge from the
mesoscale organization of the network.
