https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/s10189-023-00347-x
Regular Article – Soft Matter
On the force between “rafts”
1
Department of Physics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
2
Department of Physics, Kent State University, Kent, OH, USA
Received:
15
May
2023
Accepted:
8
September
2023
Published online:
22
September
2023
“Rafts” in the plasma membrane are nanoscopic domains rich in sphingolipids and cholesterol. Groups of them are thought to provide stable platforms for various proteins. How several rafts can form a larger stable platform has yet to be made clear. Here, we show that in the microemulsion theory of rafts, in which they, and the sea in which they float, are characterized by a naturally occurring length, rafts separated by a sea larger than this length will attract one another, thus making the sea smaller. Similarly, if rafts are separated by a sea that is smaller than the characteristic size, they will repel one another thus allowing the sea to increase in size. Such an elastic force can clearly stabilize a platform of many rafts.
In Honor of Fyl Pincus.
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© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to EDP Sciences, SIF and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2023. Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
