DOI: 10.1051/jp2:1992210
J. Phys. II France 2 (1992) 1423-1438

Correlations between the form fluctuation modes of flaccid quasispherical lipid vesicles and their role in the calculation of the curvature elastic modulus of the vesicle membrane. Numerical results

I. Bivas¹, L. Bivolarski², M. D. Mitov¹ and A. Derzhanski<sup>1

1</sup>  Institute of Solid State Physics, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Laboratory of Liquid Crystals, 72 Trakia blvd., Sofia 1784, Bulgaria
²  Department of informatics, Space Research Institute, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, acad. G. Bontchev str., block 3, Sofia 1113, Bulgaria

(Received 14 May 1991, revised 1 April 1992, accepted 14 April 1992)

Abstract
It is shown in this paper that the existing theories of the form fluctuations of quasispherical lipid vesicle give a too mean stretching energy of its membrane. A more precise theory taking into account the area conservation of the membrane is proposed. The relation between the amplitudes of the form fluctuations and the curvature elastic modulus of the membrane is obtained numerically by means of a suitable Monte Carlo simulation.

Résumé
Dans cet article nous montrons que les théories existantes des fluctuations de la forme d'une vésicule lipidique quasisphérique donnent des valeurs trop élevées pour l'énergie moyenne de dilatation de sa membrane. Une théorie propre, qui tient compte de la conservation de la surface de la membrane, est proposée. La relation entre les amplitudes des fluctuations de la forme et le module d'élasticité de courbure de la membrane est obtenue numériquement au moyen d'une simulation Monte Carlo convenable.

PACS
68.10 - 82.70 - 87.20

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