Frustration-induced ripple phase in bilayer membranes

Hiroya Kodama; Shigeyuki Komura

doi:doi:10.1051/jp2:1993104

Numéro		J. Phys. II France Volume 3, Numéro 9, September 1993


Page(s)		1305 - 1311
DOI		https://doi.org/10.1051/jp2:1993104

DOI: 10.1051/jp2:1993104
J. Phys. II France 3 (1993) 1305-1311

Frustration-induced ripple phase in bilayer membranes

Hiroya Kodama¹ and Shigeyuki Komura²

¹ Department of Applied Physics, Faculty of Engineering, Nagoya University, Nagoya 464-01, Japan
² Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606, Japan

(Received 29 March 1993, accepted in final form 5 July 1993)

Abstract
A model describing the phase transition from the L $_{\alpha}$ or L $_{\beta}$ phase to the modulated P $_{\beta}$ ("rippled") phase in a bilayer membrane is considered within mean-field approximation. The coupling between the curvature and the asymmetry in the area per molecule can destabilize the flat phase by releasing its frustration energy. We obtain the pressure-temperature phase diagram which qualitatively accounts for part of the pressure experiment of DPPC in excess water. The existence of the modulated structure within our model is also confirmed by a cell dynamical simulation.