N-body Study of Anisotropic Membrane Inclusions: Membrane Mediated Interactions and Ordered Aggregation

TL;DR

This study investigates how anisotropic inclusions in fluid membranes interact through N-body forces, leading to aggregation patterns, with implications for biological membranes and colloidal systems.

Contribution

It provides explicit calculations of multi-body anisotropic membrane interactions and demonstrates their role in aggregation behavior through simulations.

Findings

Long-range attractive interactions induce aggregation.

Transition from compact clusters to line or circle formations.

Results relevant to biological membranes and colloidal particles.

Abstract

We study the collective behavior of inclusions inducing local anisotropic curvatures in a flexible fluid membrane. The N-body interaction energy for general anisotropic inclusions is calculated explicitly, including multi-body interactions. Long-range attractive interactions between inclusions are found to be sufficiently strong to induce aggregation. Monte Carlo simulations show a transition from compact clusters to aggregation on lines or circles. These results might be relevant to proteins in biological membranes or colloidal particles bound to surfactant membranes.