693 research outputs found
Bilayer Membrane in Confined Geometry: Interlayer Slide and Steric Repulsion
We derived free energy functional of a bilayer lipid membrane from the first
principles of elasticity theory. The model explicitly includes
position-dependent mutual slide of monolayers and bending deformation. Our free
energy functional of liquid-crystalline membrane allows for incompressibility
of the membrane and vanishing of the in-plane shear modulus and obeys
reflectional and rotational symmetries of the flat bilayer. Interlayer slide at
the mid-plane of the membrane results in local difference of surface densities
of the monolayers. The slide amplitude directly enters free energy via the
strain tensor. For small bending deformations the ratio between bending modulus
and area compression coefficient, Kb/KA, is proportional to the square of
monolayer thickness, h. Using the functional we performed self-consistent
calculation of steric potential acting on bilayer between parallel confining
walls separated by distance 2d. We found that temperature-dependent curvature
at the minimum of confining potential is enhanced four times for a bilayer with
slide as compared with a unit bilayer. We also calculate viscous modes of
bilayer membrane between confining walls. Pure bending of the membrane is
investigated, which is decoupled from area dilation at small amplitudes. Three
sources of viscous dissipation are considered: water and membrane viscosities
and interlayer drag. Dispersion has two branches. Confinement between the walls
modifies the bending mode with respect to membrane in bulk solution.
Simultaneously, inter-layer slipping mode, damped by viscous drag, remains
unchanged by confinement.Comment: 23 pages,3 figures, pd
Comment on "Effects of spatial dispersion on electromagnetic surface modes and on modes associated with a gap between two half spaces"
Recently Bo E. Sernelius [Phys. Rev. B {\bf 71}, 235114 (2005)] investigated
the effects of spatial dispersion on the thermal Casimir force between two
metal half spaces. He claims that incorporating spatial dispersion results in a
negligible contribution from the transverse electric mode at zero frequency as
compared to the transverse magnetic mode. We demonstrate that this conclusion
is not reliable because, when applied to the Casimir effect, the approximate
description of spatial dispersion used is unjustified.Comment: 9 pages, minor corrections in accordance with the journal publication
have been mad
Dynamic Fluctuation Phenomena in Double Membrane Films
Dynamics of double membrane films is investigated in the long-wavelength
limit including the overdamped squeezing mode. We demonstrate that thermal
fluctuations essentially modify the character of the mode due to its nonlinear
coupling to the transversal shear hydrodynamic mode. The corresponding Green
function acquires as a function of the frequency a cut along the imaginary
semi-axis. Fluctuations lead to increasing the attenuation of the squeezing
mode it becomes larger than the `bare' value.Comment: 7 pages, Revte
Finite temperature Casimir effect for graphene
We adopt the Dirac model for quasiparticles in graphene and calculate the
finite temperature Casimir interaction between a suspended graphene layer and a
parallel conducting surface. We find that at high temperature the Casimir
interaction in such system is just one half of that for two ideal conductors
separated by the same distance. In this limit single graphene layer behaves
exactly as a Drude metal. In particular, the contribution of the TE mode is
suppressed, while one of the TM mode saturates the ideal metal value. Behaviour
of the Casimir interaction for intermediate temperatures and separations
accessible for an experiment is studied in some detail. We also find an
interesting interplay between two fundamental constants of graphene physics:
the fine structure constant and the Fermi velocity.Comment: 13 pages, 2 figures, to appear in Physical Review
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