Phase transitions and critical indices of a phospholipid bilayer model

A model is described which has been used in theoretical studies of a variety of phenomena (which are briefly summarized) relating to biological membranes. It is shown that the Hamiltonian describing this model can be mapped onto an Ising Hamiltonian with a temperature dependent field. It is also shown that this field varies linearly with temperature in the critical region. Exact solutions of this model are presented and its first and second order transitions are discussed with an emphasis on obtaining its critical indices. General considerations lead to the following relations: =1/, =, =, where , , , are the critical indices for the specific heat, magnetization, susceptibility and critical isotherm respectively (the primes denoting low temperature indices). These relations are demonstrated explicitly for the Bethe lattice with coordination numbersq=2 and 6.