Shape Changes of Self-Assembled Actin Bilayer Composite Membranes

We report the self-assembly of thin actin shells beneath the membranes of giant vesicles. Ion-carrier mediated influx of Mg2+ induces actin polymerization in the initially spherical vesicles. Buckling of the vesicles and the formation of blisters after thermally induced bilayer expansion is demonstrated. Bilayer flickering is dominated by tension generated by its coupling to the actin cortex. Quantitative flicker analysis suggests the bilayer and the actin cortex are separated by 0.4 \mum to 0.5 \mum due to undulation forces.Comment: pdf-file, has been accepted by PR

Eight-component two-fermion equations

An eight-component formalism is proposed for the relativistic two-fermion problem. In QED, it extends the applicability of the Dirac equation with hyperfine interaction to the positronium case. The use of exact relativistic two-body kinematics entails a CP-invariant spectrum which is symmetric in the total cms energy. It allows the extension of recent \alpha^6 recoil corrections to the positronium case, and implies new recoil corrections to the fine and hyperfine structures and to the Bethe logarithm.Comment: Revtex, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.