Eur. Phys. J. E (2009) 29: 183-189
https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/i2009-10468-8

Regular Article

On the fluctuations of the force exerted by a lipid nanotubule

Laboratoire Matière et Systèmes Complexes (MSC), UMR 7057 CNRS & Université Paris Diderot-Paris 7, Bât. Condorcet, CC 7056, 75205, Paris, France

^* e-mail: jean-baptiste.fournier@univ-paris-diderot.fr

Received: 23 January 2009
Revised: 6 April 2009
Accepted: 30 April 2009
Published online: 12 June 2009

Abstract

After deriving the projected stress tensor in cylindrical geometry for a fluid membrane described by the Helfrich Hamiltonian, we calculate the average force f exerted by a thermally fluctuating nanotubule of radius R , and its standard deviation f . We obtain f and f in terms of the internal membrane tension , the bending rigidity , the temperature k _B T and a molecular cutoff . We find for f a shift ∼ 1/ with respect to the mean field behavior ∼ . We obtain ( f )² ∼ R ln(R/b) where b is a molecular length, f being typically small compared to f . Taking into account the difference between the internal tension and the actual mechanical tension applied to the membrane from which the tubule is drawn, we discuss the amplitude of the fluctuation-induced corrections to the average force. Our results, obtained in the harmonic approximation, hold for tubules with aspect ratio not larger than 200 , of radius significantly smaller than 100nm, that are connected to a large membrane reservoir, e.g., a giant vesicle.