DOI: 10.1140/epje/i2002-10091-3
Thermal undulations of quasi-spherical vesicles stabilized by gravity
J.R. Henriksen1 and J.H. Ipsen21 Department of Chemistry, The Technical University of Denmark, Building 206, DK-2800 Lyngby, Denmark
2 Department of Chemistry, University of Southern Denmark, Campusvej 55, DK-5230 Odense M, Denmark
jonas@kemi.dtu.dk
ipsen@memphys.sdu.dk
(Received 9 July 2002 and Received in final form 15 November 2002 / Published online: 21 January 2003)
Abstract
The classical treatment of quasi-spherical vesicle undulations has,
in the present work, been reviewed and extended to
systems, which are affected by a gravitational field caused by a density
difference across the membrane. The effects have been
studied by the use of perturbation theory leading to corrections to the
mean shape and the fluctuation correlation matrix.
These corrections have been included in an analytical expression for
the flicker spectrum to probe how the experimentally
accessible spectrum changes with gravity. The results are represented
in terms of the gravitational parameter,
.
The contributions from gravity are in most experimental situations
small and thus negligible, but for values of
g0
above a certain limit, the perturbational corrections must be
included. Expressions for the relative error on the flicker
spectrum have been worked out, so that it is possible to define
the regime where gravity is negligible. An upper limit of
g0 has also been identified, where the error in all modes of
the flicker spectrum is significant due to
distortion of the mean shape.
68.37.-d - Microscopy of surfaces, interfaces and thin films.
87.16.Dg - Membranes, bilayers, and vesicles.
05.40.-a - Fluctuation phenomena, random processes, noise, and Brownian motion.
© EDP Sciences, Società Italiana di Fisica, Springer-Verlag 2002
