Shape instabilities in vesicles: a phase-field model

TL;DR

This paper introduces a phase-field model to simulate and analyze shape instabilities in fluid membrane vesicles, incorporating bending energy and spontaneous curvature, enabling dynamic visualization of vesicle deformations under external influences.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel phase-field model that captures vesicle shape instabilities dynamically, including the effects of spontaneous curvature and external agents.

Findings

Model successfully reproduces known stationary vesicle shapes.

Demonstrates dynamic vesicle deformation under external perturbations.

Provides a detailed numerical scheme for simulating vesicle shape changes.

Abstract

A phase field model for dealing with shape instabilities in fluid membrane vesicles is presented. This model takes into account the Canham-Helfrich bending energy with spontaneous curvature. A dynamic equation for the phase-field is also derived. With this model it is possible to see the vesicle shape deformation dynamically, when some external agent instabilizes the membrane, for instance, inducing an inhomogeneous spontaneous curvature. The numerical scheme used is detailed and some stationary shapes are shown together with a shape diagram for vesicles of spherical topology and no spontaneous curvature, in agreement with known results.