Defect dynamics in crystalline buckled membranes

Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys. 2011 Jul;84(1 Pt 1):011123. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.84.011123. Epub 2011 Jul 18.

Abstract

We study the dynamics of defect annihilation in flexible crystalline membranes suffering a symmetry-breaking phase transition. The kinetic process leading the system toward equilibrium is described through a Brazovskii-Helfrich-Canham Hamiltonian. In membranes, a negative disclination has a larger energy than a positive disclination. Here we show that this energetic asymmetry does not only affect equilibrium properties, like the Kosterlitz-Thouless transition temperature, but also plays a fundamental role in the dynamic of defects. Both unbinding of dislocations and Carraro-Nelson "antiferromagnetic" interactions between disclinations slow down the dynamics below the Lifshitz-Safran regime observed in flat hexagonal systems.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms
  • Biophysics / methods*
  • Crystallization
  • Diffusion
  • Kinetics
  • Lipid Bilayers / chemistry
  • Materials Testing
  • Membranes / chemistry*
  • Models, Statistical
  • Physics / methods
  • Regression Analysis
  • Temperature

Substances

  • Lipid Bilayers