Descriptions of membrane mechanics from microscopic and effective two-dimensional perspectives

Mechanics of active surfaces

We derive a fully covariant theory of the mechanics of active surfaces. This theory provides a framework for the study of active biological or chemical processes at surfaces, such as the cell cortex, the mechanics of epithelial tissues, or reconstituted active systems on surfaces. We introduce forces and torques acting on a surface, and derive the associated force balance conditions. We show that surfaces with in-plane rotational symmetry can have broken up-down, chiral, or planar-chiral symmetry. We discuss the rate of entropy production in the surface and write linear constitutive relations that satisfy the Onsager relations. We show that the bending modulus, the spontaneous curvature, and the surface tension of a passive surface are renormalized by active terms. Finally, we identify active terms which are not found in a passive theory and discuss examples of shape instabilities that are related to active processes in the surface.

Theory and algorithms to compute Helfrich bending forces: a review

Cell membranes are vital to shield a cell's interior from the environment. At the same time they determine to a large extent the cell's mechanical resistance to external forces. In recent years there has been considerable interest in the accurate computational modeling of such membranes, driven mainly by the amazing variety of shapes that red blood cells and model systems such as vesicles can assume in external flows. Given that the typical height of a membrane is only a few nanometers while the surface of the cell extends over many micrometers, physical modeling approaches mostly consider the interface as a two-dimensional elastic continuum. Here we review recent modeling efforts focusing on one of the computationally most intricate components, namely the membrane's bending resistance. We start with a short background on the most widely used bending model due to Helfrich. While the Helfrich bending energy by itself is an extremely simple model equation, the computation of the resulting forces is far from trivial. At the heart of these difficulties lies the fact that the forces involve second order derivatives of the local surface curvature which by itself is the second derivative of the membrane geometry. We systematically derive and compare the different routes to obtain bending forces from the Helfrich energy, namely the variational approach and the thin-shell theory. While both routes lead to mathematically identical expressions, so-called linear bending models are shown to reproduce only the leading order term while higher orders differ. The main part of the review contains a description of various computational strategies which we classify into three categories: the force, the strong and the weak formulation. We finally give some examples for the application of these strategies in actual simulations.

Nonequilibrium thermodynamics of an interface

Interfacial thermodynamics has deep ramifications in understanding the boundary conditions of transport theories. We present a formulation of local equilibrium for interfaces that extends the thermodynamics of the "dividing surface," as introduced by Gibbs, to nonequilibrium settings such as evaporation or condensation. By identifying the precise position of the dividing surface in the interfacial region with a gauge degree of freedom, we exploit gauge-invariance requirements to consistently define the intensive variables for the interface. The model is verified under stringent conditions by employing high-precision nonequilibrium molecular-dynamics simulations of a coexisting vapor-liquid Lennard-Jones fluid. We conclude that the interfacial temperature is determined using the surface tension as a "thermometer," and it can be significantly different from the temperatures of the adjacent phases. Our findings lay foundations for nonequilibrium interfacial thermodynamics.

Dynamic behavior of interfaces: modeling with nonequilibrium thermodynamics

In multiphase systems the transfer of mass, heat, and momentum, both along and across phase interfaces, has an important impact on the overall dynamics of the system. Familiar examples are the effects of surface diffusion on foam drainage (Marangoni effect), or the effect of surface elasticities on the deformation of vesicles or red blood cells in an arterial flow. In this paper we will review recent work on modeling transfer processes associated with interfaces in the context of nonequilibrium thermodynamics (NET). The focus will be on NET frameworks employing the Gibbs dividing surface model, in which the interface is modeled as a two-dimensional plane. This plane has excess variables associated with it, such as a surface mass density, a surface momentum density, a surface energy density, and a surface entropy density. We will review a number of NET frameworks which can be used to derive balance equations and constitutive models for the time rate of change of these excess variables, as a result of in-plane (tangential) transfer processes, and exchange with the adjoining bulk phases. These balance equations must be solved together with mass, momentum, and energy balances for the bulk phases, and a set of boundary conditions coupling the set of bulk and interface equations. This entire set of equations constitutes a comprehensive continuum model for a multiphase system, and allows us to examine the role of the interfacial dynamics on the overall dynamics of the system. With respect to the constitutive equations we will focus primarily on equations for the surface extra stress tensor.

Electromechanics of a membrane with spatially distributed fixed charges: flexoelectricity and elastic parameters

We investigate the electrostatic contribution to the lipid membrane mechanical parameters: tension, bending rigidity, spontaneous curvature, and flexocoefficient, using an approach where stress in the membrane is explicitly balanced. Our model includes an applied electrostatic potential as well as a charge distribution in the membrane. We apply our theory to membranes having surface charges and electric dipoles at the surface.

Force dipoles and stable local defects on fluid vesicles

An exact description is provided of an almost spherical fluid vesicle with a fixed area and a fixed enclosed volume locally deformed by external normal forces bringing two nearby points on the surface together symmetrically. The conformal invariance of the two-dimensional bending energy is used to identify the distribution of energy as well as the stress established in the vesicle. While these states are local minima of the energy, this energy is degenerate; there is a zero mode in the energy fluctuation spectrum, associated with area- and volume-preserving conformal transformations, which breaks the symmetry between the two points. The volume constraint fixes the distance S, measured along the surface, between the two points; if it is relaxed, a second zero mode appears, reflecting the independence of the energy on S; in the absence of this constraint a pathway opens for the membrane to slip out of the defect. Logarithmic curvature singularities in the surface geometry at the points of contact signal the presence of external forces. The magnitude of these forces varies inversely with S and so diverges as the points merge; the corresponding torques vanish in these defects. The geometry behaves near each of the singularities as a biharmonic monopole, in the region between them as a surface of constant mean curvature, and in distant regions as a biharmonic quadrupole. Comparison of the distribution of stress with the quadratic approximation in the height functions points to shortcomings of the latter representation. Radial tension is accompanied by lateral compression, both near the singularities and far away, with a crossover from tension to compression occurring in the region between them.

Vesicle electrohydrodynamics

A small amplitude perturbation analysis is developed to describe the effect of a uniform electric field on the dynamics of a lipid bilayer vesicle in a simple shear flow. All media are treated as leaky dielectrics and fluid motion is described by the Stokes equations. The instantaneous vesicle shape is obtained by balancing electric, hydrodynamic, bending, and tension stresses exerted on the membrane. We find that in the absence of ambient shear flow, it is possible that an applied stepwise uniform dc electric field could cause the vesicle shape to evolve from oblate to prolate over time if the encapsulated fluid is less conducting than the suspending fluid. For a vesicle in ambient shear flow, the electric field damps the tumbling motion, leading to a stable tank-treading state.

Spinor representation of surfaces and complex stresses on membranes and interfaces

Variational principles are developed within the framework of a spinor representation of the surface geometry to examine the equilibrium properties of a membrane or interface. This is a far-reaching generalization of the Weierstrass-Enneper representation for minimal surfaces, introduced by mathematicians in the 1990s, permitting the relaxation of the vanishing mean curvature constraint. In this representation the surface geometry is described by a spinor field, satisfying a two-dimensional Dirac equation, coupled through a potential associated with the mean curvature. As an application, the mesoscopic model for a fluid membrane as a surface described by the Canham-Helfrich energy quadratic in the mean curvature is examined. An explicit construction is provided of the conserved complex-valued stress tensor characterizing this surface.

Balancing torques in membrane-mediated interactions: exact results and numerical illustrations

Torques on interfaces can be described by a divergence-free tensor which is fully encoded in the geometry. This tensor consists of two terms, one originating in the couple of the stress, the other capturing an intrinsic contribution due to curvature. In analogy to the description of forces in terms of a stress tensor, the torque on a particle can be expressed as a line integral along a contour surrounding the particle. Interactions between particles mediated by a fluid membrane are studied within this framework. In particular, torque balance places a strong constraint on the shape of the membrane. Symmetric two-particle configurations admit simple analytical expressions which are valid in the fully nonlinear regime; in particular, the problem may be solved exactly in the case of two membrane-bound parallel cylinders. This apparently simple system provides some flavor of the remarkably subtle nonlinear behavior associated with membrane-mediated interactions.

Applying a potential across a biomembrane: electrostatic contribution to the bending rigidity and membrane instability

We investigate the effect on biomembrane mechanical properties due to the presence an external potential for a nonconductive incompressible membrane surrounded by different electrolytes. By solving the Debye-Hückel and Laplace equations for the electrostatic potential and using the relevant stress-tensor we find (1) in the small screening length limit, where the Debye screening length is smaller than the distance between the electrodes, the screening certifies that all electrostatic interactions are short range and the major effect of the applied potential is to decrease the membrane tension and increase the bending rigidity; explicit expressions for electrostatic contribution to the tension and bending rigidity are derived as a function of the applied potential, the Debye screening lengths, and the dielectric constants of the membrane and the solvents. For sufficiently large voltages the negative contribution to the tension is expected to cause a membrane stretching instability. (2) For the dielectric limit, i.e., no salt (and small wave vectors compared to the distance between the electrodes), when the dielectric constant on the two sides are different the applied potential induces an effective (unscreened) membrane charge density, whose long-range interaction is expected to lead to a membrane undulation instability.

Continuum theory of a moving membrane

We derive a set of equations for the dynamics of evolving fluid membranes, such as cell membranes, in the presence of bulk fluids. We model the membrane as a surface endowed with a director field, which describes the local average orientation of the molecules on the membrane. A model for the elastic energy of a surface endowed with a director field is derived using liquid crystal theory. This elastic energy reduces to the well-known Helfrich energy in the limit when the directors are constrained to be normal to the surface. We then derive the full dynamic equations for the membrane that incorporate both the elastic and viscous effects, with and without the presence of bulk fluids. We also consider the effect of local spontaneous curvature, arising from the presence of membrane proteins. Overall, the systems of equations allow us to carry out stable, accurate, and robust numerical modeling for the dynamics of the membranes.