A continuum model of lipid bilayers

We study a one-dimensional continuum model for lipid bilayers. The system consists of water and lipid molecules; lipid molecules are represented by two ‘beads’, a head bead and a tail bead, connected by a rigid rod. We derive a simplified model for such a system, in which we only take into account t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inEuropean journal of applied mathematics Vol. 15; no. 4; pp. 487 - 508
Main Authors BLOM, J. G., PELETIER, M. A.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Cambridge, UK Cambridge University Press 01.08.2004
Subjects
Applied mathematics
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Summary:We study a one-dimensional continuum model for lipid bilayers. The system consists of water and lipid molecules; lipid molecules are represented by two ‘beads’, a head bead and a tail bead, connected by a rigid rod. We derive a simplified model for such a system, in which we only take into account the effects of entropy and hydrophilic/hydrophobic interactions. We show that for this simple model membrane-like structures exist for certain choices of the parameters, and numerical calculations suggest that they are stable.
Bibliography:istex:8EC48EB2204564F638A7F5B1879C5030419B4B20
PII:S0956792504005613
ark:/67375/6GQ-8N1JBFJ8-K
ISSN:0956-7925
1469-4425
DOI:10.1017/S0956792504005613