Fluctuation induced interactions between domains in membranes

Abstract

We study a model lipid bilayer composed of a mixture of two incompatible lipid types which have a natural tendency to segregate in the absence of membrane fluctuations. The membrane is mechanically characterized by a local bending rigidity $\kappa (\varphi )$ which varies with the average local lipid composition $\varphi$. We show, in the case where $\kappa$ varies weakly with $\varphi$, that the effective interaction between lipids of the same type can either be everywhere attractive or can have a repulsive component at intermediate distances greater than the typical lipid size. When this interaction has a repulsive component, it can prevent macro-phase separation and lead to separation in mesophases with a finite domain size. This effect could be relevant to certain experimental and numerical observations of mesoscopic domains in such systems.

9 pages RevTex, 1 eps figure

References in corpus (6)

• Non-equilibrium raft-like membrane domains under continuous recycling
• Interactions between proteins bound to biomembranes
• Shape fluctuations and elastic properties of two-component bilayer membranes
• The Effect of Thermal Fluctuations on Schulman Area Elasticity
• Elastic interaction between "hard'' or "soft" pointwise inclusions on biological membranes
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Cited by in corpus (9)

• Morphology and Interaction between Lipid Domains
• The out of equilibrium behavior of Casimir type fluctuation induced forces for free classical fields
• Fluctuations of the Casimir-like force between two membrane inclusions
• Clusters of proteins in bio-membranes: insights into the roles of interaction potential shapes and of protein diversity
• Attractive asymmetric inclusions in elastic membranes under tension: cluster phases and membrane invaginations
• A rationale for mesoscopic domain formation in biomembranes
• Mixed lipid bilayers with locally varying spontaneous curvature and bending
• Path integrals for stiff polymers applied to membrane physics
• Fluctuation mediated interactions due to rigidity mismatch and their effect on miscibility of lipid mixtures in multicomponent membranes