2003/09/30 by Thomas R. Weikl · 1 citation
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Chemistry · Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Adhesion #Adsorption #Biology #Biophysics #Cellular Mechanics and Interactions #Chemical physics #Chemistry #Composite material #Computer science #Force Microscopy Techniques and Applications #Geometry #Lipid Membrane Structure and Behavior #Macromolecule #Materials science #Mathematics #Membrane #Perpendicular #Planar #Tension (geology) #cond-mat.soft #q-bio.SC
paper · pdf · doi:10.1140/epje/i2003-10058-x
9 pages, 8 figures; typos corrected
openalex publication_date 2003/10/01 · arxiv created 2003/11/05 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Biological and biomimetic membranes often contain aggregates of embedded or adsorbed macromolecules. In this article, the indirect interactions of cylindrical objects adhering to a planar membrane are considered theoretically. The adhesion of the cylinders causes a local perturbation of the equilibrium membrane shape, which leads to membrane-mediated interactions. For a planar membrane under lateral tension, the interaction is repulsive for a pair of cylinders adhering to the same side of the membrane, and attractive for cylinders adhering at opposite membrane sides. For a membrane in an external harmonic potential, the interaction of adsorbed cylinders is always attractive and increases if forces perpendicular to the membrane act on the cylinders.