Inclusion-induced boundary layers in lipid vesicles.
The equilibrium shapes of lipid vesicles are perturbed by rigid inclusions. In a two-dimensional vesicle, that may also model a cylindrically elongated tubule, the shape modifications can be determined analytically, and turn out to be significant even far from the inclusion. On the contrary, previous numerical work has given evidence that in the three-dimensional case the shape perturbations decay quite rapidly and are negligible a few inclusion radii away. In this paper, we use the tools of asymptotic analysis to derive analytically the shape of the boundary layer induced by the inclusion. As a result, we are able to determine the dominant part of the free-energy perturbation that, in turn, allows to identify the vesicle points where the inclusion prefers to sit.
Biscari
Paolo
P
Dipartimento di Matematica, Politecnico di Milano, Piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32, 20133 Milano, Italy. paolo.biscari@polimi.it
Napoli
Gaetano
G
D003198:Computer Simulation; D008051:Lipid Bilayers / Q000737:chemistry*; D008081:Liposomes / Q000737:chemistry*; D008560:Membrane Fluidity; D008956:Models, Chemical
D008051:Lipid Bilayers; D008081:Liposomes