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Updated: Aug 26, 2026

Pulling Membrane Nanotubes from Giant Unilamellar Vesicles
Published on: December 7, 2017
Mobility of extended bodies in viscous films and membranes
Alex J Levine1, T B Liverpool, F C MacKintosh
1The Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106, USA. levine@physics.umass.edu
Abstract:
We develop general methods to calculate the mobilities of extended bodies in (or associated with) membranes and films. We demonstrate a striking difference between in-plane motion of rodlike inclusions and the corresponding case of bulk (three-dimensional) fluids: for rotations and motion perpendicular to the rod axis, we find purely local drag, in which the drag coefficient is purely algebraic in the rod dimensions. These results as well as the calculational methods are applicable to such problems as the diffusion of objects in or associated with Langmuir films and lipid membranes. These methods can also be simply extended to treat viscoelastic systems.
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