Adhesion of lipid tubules in an assembly

Abstract

We study a unilateral equilibrium problem for the energy functional of a lipid tubule subject to an external field. These tubules, which constitute many biological systems, may form assemblies when they are brought in contact, and so made to adhere to one another along at interstices. The contact energy is taken to be proportional to the area of contact through a constant, which is called the adhesion potential. This competes against the external field in determining the stability of patterns with flat interstices. Though the equilibrium problem is highly nonlinear, we determine explicitly the stability diagram for the adhesion between tubules. We conclude that the higher the field, the lower the adhesion potential needed to make at interstices energetically favourable, though its critical value depends also on the surface tension of the interface between the tubules and the isotropic fluid around them.