Statistical mechanics of thermal fluctuations of nearly spherical membranes: the influence of bending and stretching elasticities

TL;DR

This paper reviews the statistical mechanics of nearly spherical membranes, analyzing how bending and stretching elasticities influence thermal shape fluctuations under fixed area and volume constraints, using approximate methods for complex Hamiltonians.

Contribution

It introduces a self-consistent approach to incorporate stretching effects in membrane fluctuation theory, comparing fixed area and tension-based constraints, and discusses ensemble equivalence.

Findings

Stretching effects significantly influence fluctuation spectra.

The self-consistent tension equation is intractable analytically in general.

Approximate solutions provide physical insights into membrane elasticity.

Abstract

Theoretical studies of nearly spherical vesicles and microemulsion droplets, that present typical examples for thermally-excited systems that are subject to constraints, are reviewed. We consider the shape fluctuations of such systems constrained by fixed area $A$ and fixed volume $V$, whose geometry is presented in terms of scalar spherical harmonics. These constraints can be incorporated in the theory in different ways. After an introductory review of the two approaches: with an exactly fixed by delta-function membrane area $A$ [Seifert, Z. Phys. B, 97, 299, (1995)] or approximatively by means of a Lagrange multiplier $\sigma$ conjugated to $A$ [Milner and Safran, Phys. Rev. A, 36, 4371 (1987)], we discuss the determined role of the stretching effects, that has been announced in the framework of a model containing stretching energy term, expressed via the membrane vesicle tension [Bivas and Tonchev, Phys.Rev.E, 100, 022416 (2019)]. Since the fluctuation spectrum for the used Hamiltonian is not exactly solvable an approximating method based on the Bogoliubov inequalities for the free energy has been developed. The area constraint in the last approach appears as a self-consistent equation for the membrane tension. In the general case this equation is intractable analytically. However, much insight into the physics behind can be obtained either imposing some restrictions on the values of the model parameters, or studying limiting cases, in which the self-consistent equation is solved. Implications for the equivalence of ensembles have been discussed as well.