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11:53
Crystallization of Membrane Proteins in Lipidic Mesophases
Published on: March 28, 2011
Structure of physical crystalline membranes within the self-consistent screening approximation.
1Institute for Nuclear Theory, University of Washington, PO Box 351550, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA. doron.gazit@mail.huji.ac.il
Physical Review. E, Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics
|November 13, 2009
Summary
We calculated anomalous exponents for crystalline membranes using a self-consistent screening approximation (SCSA). The bending rigidity hardens with exponent eta=0.789, impacting elasticity and roughness exponents for physical membranes.
Area of Science:
- Condensed matter physics
- Materials science
- Statistical mechanics
Background:
- Physical crystalline membranes exhibit complex long-wavelength behavior.
- Understanding their elasticity and roughness is crucial for applications.
- Previous work by Le Doussal and Radzihovsky laid the foundation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To calculate anomalous exponents governing the flat phase of crystalline membranes.
- To extend existing theories using a self-consistent screening approximation (SCSA).
- To analyze the impact of codimension expansion on membrane properties.
Main Methods:
- Applied SCSA to a second-order expansion in 1/dC (codimension).
- Calculated bending rigidity, elasticity softening, and roughness exponents.
- Proved the scaling relation eta(u)=2-2eta to all orders in SCSA.
Main Results:
- Bending rigidity hardens algebraically with eta=0.789...
- Extracted elasticity softening exponent eta(u)=0.422... and roughness exponent zeta=0.605...
- SCSA to second-order expansion is essential; no solution found at the naive second-order level.
Conclusions:
- SCSA provides high-quality results for physical crystalline membranes, even with 1/dC=1.
- The second-order expansion shows only slight deviation from the first order, validating the approach.
- SCSA predictions for the Poisson ratio are exact to all orders.
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