2020/05/26 by Padmini Rangamani, Rangamani, P., A. Behzadan +3
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Medicine · #Biological Physics (physics.bio-ph) #Erythrocyte Function and Pathophysiology #FOS: Mathematics #FOS: Physical sciences #Lipid Membrane Structure and Behavior #Numerical Analysis (math.NA) #RNA Interference and Gene Delivery
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2005.12550
openalex publication_date 2020/05/26 · openalex created_date 2020/06/05 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The Helfrich energy is commonly used to model the elastic bending energy of lipid bilayers in membrane mechanics. The governing differential equations for certain geometric characteristics of the shape of the membrane can be obtained by applying variational methods (minimization principles) to the Helfrich energy functional and are well-studied in the axisymmetric framework. However, the Helfrich energy functional and the resulting differential equations involve a number of parameters, and there is little explanation of the choice of parameters in the literature, particularly with respect to the choice of the "spontaneous curvature" term that appears in the functional. In this paper, we present a careful analytical and numerical study of certain aspects of parametric sensitivity of Helfrich's Using simulations of specific model systems, we demonstrate the application of our scheme to the formation of spherical buds and pearled shapes in membrane vesicles.