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Updated: Jul 18, 2026

Realistic Membrane Modeling Using Complex Lipid Mixtures in Simulation Studies
Published on: September 1, 2023
Shape and stability of two-dimensional lipid domains with dipole-dipole interactions
Mitsumasa Iwamoto1, Fei Liu, Zhong-can Ou-Yang
1Department of Physical Electronics, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 152-8552, Japan. iwamoto@pe.tiech.ac.jp
Abstract:
We study the general energy and shape of the two-dimensional solid monolayer domains with the dipole-dipole interactions. Compared with the domain energy without tilted dipole moments [M. Iwamoto and Z. C. Ou-Yang, Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 206101 (2004)], the general dipolar energy is not only shape and size but also boundary orientation dependent. The general shape equation derived by this energy using variational approach predicts a circular solution and an equilibrium shape grown from this circle. In particular, the latter is composed of two branches: a translation-induced growth of all odd harmonic modes and a pressure-induced cooperative deformation by all even harmonic modes. The good qualitative agreement between our prediction and the experimental observations shows the validity of the present theory.
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