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Updated: May 29, 2026

Neutron Spin Echo Spectroscopy as a Unique Probe for Lipid Membrane Dynamics and Membrane-Protein Interactions
Published on: May 27, 2021
Equilibrium fluctuations of a quasi-spherical vesicle: role of the membrane dissipation
Petia M Vlahovska1, Rony Granek2
1Engineering Sciences and Applied Mathematics, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA. petia.vlahovska@northwestern.edu.
Abstract:
We theoretically investigate the thermally-driven curvature and lipid density fluctuations of a quasi-spherical vesicle, accounting for the dissipation due to monolayer viscosity and intermonolayer friction. The theory predicts that membrane curvature makes long-wavelength undulations sensitive to membrane viscosity and speeds up the relaxation of the lipid density fluctuations. Implications for the dynamic roughness and dynamic structure factor measurements of submicron liposomes on nano-second time scales are discussed. Specifically, a clear stretched-exponential relaxation regime may not exist, in contrast to the behavior of planar membranes for which an anomalous diffusion exponent of 2/3 has been predicted [A. G. Zilman and R. Granek, Undulations and dynamic structure factor of membranes, Phys. Rev. Lett., 1996, 77, 4788-4791].
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