https://doi.org/10.1007/s100510050968
N-body study of anisotropic membrane inclusions: Membrane mediated interactions and ordered aggregation
Laboratoire de Physico-Chimie Théorique,
E.S.P.C.I., 10 rue Vauquelin,
75231 Paris Cedex 05,
France
Corresponding author: a jbf@turner.pct.espci.fr
Received:
30
July
1999
Revised:
8
September
1999
Published online: 15 November 1999
We study the collective behavior of inclusions inducing local anisotropic curvatures in a flexible fluid membrane. The N-body interaction energy for general anisotropic inclusions is calculated explicitly, including multi-body interactions. Long-range attractive interactions between inclusions are found to be sufficiently strong to induce aggregation. Monte Carlo simulations show a transition from compact clusters to aggregation on lines or circles. These results might be relevant to proteins in biological membranes or colloidal particles bound to surfactant membranes.
PACS: 87.15.Kg – Molecular interactions; membrane-protein interactions / 64.60.Cn – Order-disorder transformations; statistical mechanics of model systems / 24.10.Cn – Many-body theory
© EDP Sciences, Società Italiana di Fisica, Springer-Verlag, 1999