Active interface growth and pattern formation in membrane-protein systems

TL;DR

This paper presents a generic model for membrane interface growth driven by particle-like inclusions, revealing microphase separation, traveling waves, and a new universality class distinct from KPZ, inspired by biological experiments.

Contribution

It introduces a novel model linking interface dynamics with inclusions, demonstrating pattern formation and a new universality class for active membrane growth.

Findings

Patterns similar to biological experiments are reproduced.

Active growth does not follow KPZ universality.

The model exhibits a superposition of equilibrium scaling and oscillations.

Abstract

Inspired by recent experimental observation of patterning at the membrane of a living cell, we propose a generic model for the dynamics of a fluctuating interface driven by particle-like inclusions which stimulate its growth. We find that the coupling between interfacial and inclusions dynam- ics yields microphase separation and the self-organisation of travelling waves. These patterns are strikingly similar to those detected in the aforementioned experiments on actin-protein systems. Our results further show that the active growth kinetics does not fall into the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang universality class for growing interfaces, displaying instead a novel superposition of equilibrium-like scaling and sustained oscillations.