Toroidal membrane vesicles in spherical confinement

Abstract

We investigate the morphology of a toroidal fluid membrane vesicle confined inside a spherical container. The equilibrium shapes are assembled in a geometrical phase diagram as a function of scaled area and reduced volume of the membrane. For small area the vesicle can adopt its free form. When increasing the area, the membrane cannot avoid contact and touches the confining sphere along a circular contact line, which extends to a zone of contact for higher area. The elastic energies of the equilibrium shapes are compared to those of their confined counterparts of spherical topology to predict under which conditions a topology change is favored energetically.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figure