Eur. Phys. J. B 1, 465-480 (1998)
https://doi.org/10.1007/s100510050209

Fluctuation-magnification of non-equilibrium membranes near a wall

¹ "Physico-Chimie Curie", 26 rue d'Ulm, 75248 Paris Cedex 05, France
² Department of Physics, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90024, USA

Corresponding author: ^a prost@curie.fr

Received: 1 September 1997
Accepted: 3 December 1997
Published online: 15 February 1998

Abstract

Membranes in thermal equilibrium are well known to exhibit Brownian motion type shape fluctuations. Membranes containing active force centers -such as chemically active membrane proteins -suffer additional non-equilibrium shape fluctuations due to the activity of these force centers. We demonstrate, using scaling arguments, that non-equilibrium shape fluctuations are in general greatly amplified by the presence of a nearby wall or membrane due to the absence of a fluctuation-dissipation theorem. For adhesive membranes, this fluctuation magnification effect may facilitate the establishment of bonding. For non-adhesive membranes, fluctuation magnification produces a long-range repulsive pressure which can exceed the well known Helfrich repulsion due to purely thermal fluctuations.