Simulations of Liquid Bilayer and the Hunt for Protrusions

TL;DR

This paper presents detailed simulations of a liquid bilayer in a solvent, analyzing fluctuation spectra and proposing direct search methods for protrusions, revealing unusual membrane shapes and new correlation measures.

Contribution

It introduces a novel simulation approach for bilayers, detailed fluctuation analysis, and new methods for detecting protrusions at the solvent-head boundary.

Findings

Dissection of fluctuation spectrum and structure factor.

Introduction of new single-point and two-point correlation measures.

Observation of most unusual membrane shapes.

Abstract

New simulations are reported of a single bilayer immersed in a liquid solvent, using a simple extension of the model of the Max-Plack group and of model used in earlier work. Fluctuation spectrum vel structure factor is dissected in detail and the role of bulk fluctuations is revealed.We propose to search for protrusions direcdtly where they are, i.e. at the solvent-heads boundary. In this context new single-point quantities and new two-point correlations are introduced and determined for the solvent-head pairs. Most unusual shapes are obtained.