Aggregates of two-dimensional vesicles: Rouleaux and sheets

TL;DR

This paper investigates the aggregation behavior of two-dimensional lipid vesicles, revealing stable formations such as columns and sheets, and analyzing their stability and transformation modes through numerical and variational methods.

Contribution

It introduces a combined numerical and variational approach to study vesicle aggregation, identifying stable aggregate structures and their transformation mechanisms.

Findings

Stable aggregates include infinite vesicle arrangements.

Vesicles form columnar or sheet-like structures.

Transformation modes include disintegration and intercalation.

Abstract

Using both numerical and variational minimization of the bending and adhesion energy of two-dimensional lipid vesicles, we study their aggregation, and we find that the stable aggregates include an infinite number of vesicles and that they arrange either in a columnar or in a sheet-like structure. We calculate the stability diagram and we discuss the modes of transformation between the two types of aggregates, showing that they include disintegration as well as intercalation.