English

Fluctuation-induced forces between inclusions in a fluid membrane under tension

Soft Condensed Matter 2015-05-19 v2

Abstract

We discuss the fluctuation-induced force, a finite-temperature analog of the Casimir force, between two inclusions embedded in a fluid membrane under tension. We suggest a method to calculate this Casimir interaction in the most general case, where membrane fluctuations are governed by the combined action of surface tension, bending modulus, and the Gaussian rigidity. We find that the surface tension strongly modifies the power law in the separation dependence of the Casimir interaction. This results in a strong suppression of the Casimir force at separations beyond a characteristic length, which could affect protein aggregation dynamics in cell membranes.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1009.0724,
  title  = {Fluctuation-induced forces between inclusions in a fluid membrane under tension},
  author = {Hsiang-Ku Lin and Roya Zandi and Umar Mohideen and Leonid P. Pryadko},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1009.0724},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

4 pages, 1 figure

R2 v1 2026-06-21T16:09:14.522Z