Issue |
EPL
Volume 96, Number 4, November 2011
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | 40013 | |
Number of page(s) | 6 | |
Section | General | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1209/0295-5075/96/40013 | |
Published online | 10 November 2011 |
Universal amplitudes of the Casimir-like interactions between four types of rods in fluid membranes
Université Paris Diderot, Sorbonne Paris Cité, Laboratoire Matière et Systèmes Complexes (MSC), UMR 7057 CNRS - F-75205 Paris, France, EU
a
jean-baptiste.fournier@univ-paris-diderot.fr
Received:
14
July
2011
Accepted:
2
October
2011
The fluctuation-induced, Casimir-like interaction between two parallel rods of length L adsorbed on a fluid membrane is calculated analytically at short separations d≪L. The rods are modeled as constraints imposed on the membrane curvature along a straight line. This allows to define four types of rods, according to whether the membrane can twist along the rod and/or curve across it. For stiff constraints, all the interaction potentials between the different types of rods are attractive and proportional to L/d. Two of the four types of rods are then equivalent, which yields six universal Casimir amplitudes. Repulsion can occur between different rods for soft constraints. Numerical results obtained for all ranges of d/L show that the attraction potential reaches kBT for d/L≃0.2. At separations smaller than dc≈L(L/ℓp)1/3, where ℓp is the rod persistence length, two rods with fixed ends will bend toward each other and finally come into contact because of the Casimir interaction.
PACS: 05.40.-a – Fluctuation phenomena, random processes, noise, and Brownian motion / 87.16.dj – Dynamics and fluctuations / 87.16.Ka – Filaments, microtubules, their networks, and supramolecular assemblies
© EPLA, 2011
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