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Updated: Jul 19, 2025

Spatial Separation of Molecular Conformers and Clusters
Published on: January 9, 2014
Phase separation on surfaces in the presence of matter exchange
Nirvana Caballero1, Karsten Kruse2, Thierry Giamarchi1
1Department of Quantum Matter Physics, University of Geneva, 24 Quai Ernest-Ansermet, CH-1211 Geneva, Switzerland.
Abstract:
We present a field theory to describe the composition of a surface spontaneously exchanging matter with its bulk environment. By only assuming matter conservation in the system, we show with extensive numerical simulations that, depending on the matter exchange rates, a complex patterned composition distribution emerges on the surface. For one-dimensional systems we show analytically and numerically that coarsening is arrested and as a consequence domains have a characteristic length scale. Our results show that the causes of heterogeneous lipid composition in cellular membranes may be justified in simple physical terms.
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