title: Thermal fluctuations and stiffening of symmetric heterogeneous fluid membranes.
abstract: We study the effects of thermal fluctuations on symmetric tensionless heterogeneous (two-component) fluid membranes in a simple minimal model. Close to the critical point T(c) of the associated miscibility phase transition of the composition and for sufficiently strong curvature-composition interactions, mediated through a composition-dependent bending modulus, thermal fluctuations lead to enhancement of the effective bending modulus. Thus, the membrane conformation fluctuations will be suppressed near T(c), in comparison with a pure fluid membrane, for which thermal fluctuations are known to reduce the effective bending modulus at all nonzero temperatures.
authors: Condensed Matter Physics Division, Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Calcutta 700064, India.
authors: Tirthankar
authors: T
authors: Banerjee
authors: Condensed Matter Physics Division, Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Calcutta 700064, India.
authors: Abhik
authors: A
authors: Basu
mesh_terms: D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D002462:Cell Membrane / Q000737:chemistry*; D008051:Lipid Bilayers / Q000737:chemistry; D055595:Mechanical Phenomena; D008560:Membrane Fluidity; D008958:Models, Molecular; D044367:Phase Transition; D013696:Temperature
chemical_list: D008051:Lipid Bilayers