Microphysical derivation of the Canham--Helfrich free-energy density
Biological Physics
2013-01-22 v2 Soft Condensed Matter
Abstract
The Canham--Helfrich free-energy density for a lipid bilayer has drawn considerable attention. Aside from the mean and Gaussian curvatures, this free-energy density involves a spontaneous mean-curvature that encompasses information regarding the preferred, natural shape of the lipid bilayer. We use a straightforward microphysical argument to derive the Canham--Helfrich free-energy density. Our derivation (i) provides a justification for the common assertion that spontaneous curvature originates primarily from asymmetry between the leaflets comprising a bilayer and (ii) furnishes expressions for the splay and saddle-splay moduli in terms of derivatives of the underlying potential.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1211.0880,
title = {Microphysical derivation of the Canham--Helfrich free-energy density},
author = {Brian Seguin and Eliot Fried},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1211.0880},
year = {2013}
}