Effect of counterions on the Rayleigh-Plateau instability of a charged cylinder

The effect of counterions on the instability of a charged cylinder is investigated. Both axisymmetric and asymmetric perturbations are considered. The analysis shows that the Rayleigh-Plateau instability is modified for a charged cylinder in the presence of counterions. For the axisymmetric instability, the counterions have a stabilizing effect at low values of k \kappa , the inverse Debye layer thickness. However, the effect is destabilizing at higher values of k \kappa . The asymmetric modes which are stable for an uncharged cylinder are rendered unstable at high values of k \kappa . The analysis should be important in pearling instability of charged cylindrical vesicles. The expression for the correlation time of thermally induced shape fluctuations of charged cylindrical vesicles is also derived.     

Attractive instability of oppositely charged membranes induced by charge density fluctuations

We predict the conditions under which two oppositely charged membranes show a dynamic, attractive instability. Two layers with unequal charges of opposite sign can repel or be stable when in close proximity. However, dynamic charge density fluctuations can induce an attractive instability and thus facilitate fusion. We predict the dominant instability modes and time scales and show how these are controlled by the relative charge and membrane viscosities. These dynamic instabilities may be the precursors of membrane fusion in systems where artificial vesicles are engulfed by biological cells of opposite charge.     

Shape deformation of ternary vesicles coupled with phase separation

We report an experimental study on shape deformations of ternary vesicles undergoing phase separation under an osmotic pressure difference. The phase separation on various shape vesicles causes unique shape-deformation branches. In the domain coarsening stage, prolate, discocyte, and starfish vesicles show a shape convergence to discocytes, whereas a pearling instability is observed in tube vesicles. In late stages, the domains start to bud towards the inside or outside of the vesicle depending on the excess area. We discuss the deformation branches based on the membrane elasticity model.     

Instability of a lamellar phase under shear flow: formation of multilamellar vesicles

The formation of closed-compact multilamellar vesicles (referred to in the literature as the "onion texture") obtained upon shearing lamellar phases is studied using small-angle light scattering and cross-polarized microscopy. By varying the shear rate gamma;, the gap cell D, and the smectic distance d, we show that: (i) the formation of this structure occurs homogeneously in the cell at a well-defined wave vector q(i), via a strain-controlled process, and (ii) the value of q(i) varies as (dgamma;/D)(1/3). These results strongly suggest that formation of multilamellar vesicles may be monitored by an undulation (buckling) instability of the membranes, as expected from theory.     

Wrinkling of vesicles during transient dynamics in elongational flow

Recent experiments by Kantsler et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 178102 (2007)10.1103/PhysRevLett.99.178102] have shown that the relaxational dynamics of a vesicle in external elongation flow is accompanied by the formation of wrinkles on a membrane. Motivated by these experiments we present a theory describing the dynamics of a wrinkled membrane. The formation of wrinkles is related to the dynamical instability induced by negative surface tension of the membrane. For quasispherical vesicles we perform analytical study of the wrinkle structure dynamics. We derive the expression for the instability threshold and identify three stages of the dynamics. The scaling laws for the temporal evolution of wrinkling wavelength and surface tension are established, confirmed numerically, and compared to experimental results.     

Pearling instabilities of membrane tubes with anchored polymers

We have studied the pearling instability induced on hollow tubular lipid vesicles by hydrophilic polymers with hydrophobic side groups along the backbone. The results show that the polymer concentration is coupled to local membrane curvature. The relaxation of a pearled tube is characterized by two different well-separated time scales, indicating two physical mechanisms. We present a model, which explains the observed phenomena and predicts polymer segregation according to local membrane curvature at late stages.     

Liposome destruction by hydrodynamic cavitation in comparison to chemical,physical and mechanical treatments

Liposomes are widely applied in research, diagnostics, medicine and in industry. In this study we show for the first time the effect of hydrodynamic cavitation on liposome stability and compare it to the effect of well described chemical, physical and mechanical treatments. Fluorescein loaded giant 1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DOPC) lipid vesicles were treated with hydrodynamic cavitation as promising method in inactivation of biological samples. Hydrodynamic treatment was compared to various chemical, physical and mechanical stressors such as ionic strength and osmolarity agents (glucose, Na⁺, Ca²⁺, and Fe³⁺), free radicals, shear stresses (pipetting, vortex mixing, rotational shear stress), high pressure, electroporation, centrifugation, surface active agents (Triton X-100, ethanol), microwave irradiation, heating, freezing-thawing, ultrasound (ultrasonic bath, sonotrode). The fluorescence intensity of individual fluorescein loaded lipid vesicles was measured with confocal laser microscopy. The distribution of lipid vesicle size, vesicle fluorescence intensity, and the number of fluorescein loaded vesicles was determined before and after treatment with different stressors. The different environmental stressors were ranked in order of their relative effect on liposome fluorescein release. Of all tested chemical, physical and mechanical treatments for stability of lipid vesicles, the most detrimental effect on vesicles stability had hydrodynamic cavitation, vortex mixing with glass beads and ultrasound. Here we showed, for the first time that hydrodynamic cavitation was among the most effective physico-chemical treatments in destroying lipid vesicles. This work provides a benchmark for lipid vesicle robustness to a variety of different physico-chemical and mechanical parameters important in lipid vesicle preparation and application.     

Instability and reconstruction of a thin fluid film under inversion conditions

The development of mechanical instability of a neutral fluid film (liquid helium or hydrogen) under inversion conditions (it does not lie on a solid substrate but hangs from a ceiling) is discussed. Critical parameters of such an instability and the character of surface reconstruction under the action of van der Waals forces, bubble pressure, and gravitational forces are determined. The interrelation with the well-known Frenkel problem of a drop on a solid substrate is pointed out. An electrostatic mechanism is proposed for the stimulation of instability of a thin helium film. This mechanism is promising for the problem of superfluid helium leakage.     

Stokes instability in inhomogeneous membranes: application to lipoprotein suction of cholesterol-enriched domains

We examine the time-dependent distortion of a nearly circular viscous domain in an infinite viscous sheet when suction occurs. Suction, the driving force of the instability, can occur everywhere in the two phases separated by an interface. The model assumes a two-dimensional Stokes flow; the selection of the wavelength at short times is determined by a variational procedure. Contrary to the viscous fingering instability, undulations of the boundary may be observed for enough pumping, whatever the sign of the viscosity contrast between the two fluids involved. We apply our model to the suction by lipoproteins of cholesterol-enriched domains in giant unilamellar vesicles. Comparison of the number of undulations given by the model and by the experiments gives reasonable values of physical quantities such as the viscosities of the domains.     

Analysis of radiation-pressure induced mechanical oscillation of an optical microcavity

The theoretical work of Braginsky predicted that radiation pressure can couple the mechanical, mirror eigenmodes of a Fabry-Pérot resonator to its optical modes, leading to a parametric oscillation instability. This regime is characterized by regenerative mechanical oscillation of the mechanical mirror eigenmodes. We have recently observed the excitation of mechanical modes in an ultrahigh Q optical microcavity. Here, we present a detailed experimental analysis of this effect and demonstrate that radiation pressure is the excitation mechanism of the observed mechanical oscillations.     

荧光光谱对自组装多肽作为药物载体的初步研究

为解决疏水性药物普遍存在的因水中溶解度低而给药困难、生物利用度低的问题,采用了新型两亲性自组装多肽RGA16(Ac-RADAGAGARADAGAGS-NH₂)作为载体包裹和释放疏水性模型药物。以芘为模型疏水性药物,以鸡蛋卵磷脂脂质体模拟细胞膜,通过稳态荧光光谱表征和测定芘的存在形式和浓度。两亲性自组装多肽RGA16能够在水溶液中稳定模型疏水性药物芘的晶体。扫描电镜图像显示多肽RGA16与芘晶体相互吸引,两者形成10 μm以上大小的复合体。在机械搅拌下多肽RGA16与水溶液中的芘相互作用5 d左右形成稳定的胶体混悬液(多肽-芘复合体)。被多肽包裹时,芘以晶体的形式存在。而当与EPC脂质体溶液混合时,芘可从多肽的包裹中以分子形式释放到EPC的双层膜中。芘从自组装多肽所稳定的胶态晶体向EPC脂质体释放的过程采用连续时间扫描稳态荧光光谱加以观察。通过将释放过程中芘单体的荧光强度与标准曲线相比较,确定了特定时间点EPC脂质体中芘的转移量。以上结果表明：该两亲性自组装多肽RGA16具有作为小分子量疏水性药物载体的潜力。     

Lagrangian approach for analysis of radiation pressure induced parametric instability in micro-resonators

We introduce a new scheme for determining radiation pressure coupling to microresonator devices. It is shown that for the input pump powers there exists a threshold value for instability behavior. Radiation pressure can couple mechanical modes of a cavity to it's optical modes, leading to parametric oscillation instability. Here we present an approximate analysis of such nonlinear effect with Hamilton's least action principle. Our Lagrangian includes no interaction term, but interaction between optical and mechanical modes has been taken into account through integration limit.     

An experimental investigation of the theory of electrostatic deflections

The so-called “pull-in” instability is a ubiquitous feature of electrostatic actuation. In systems where an applied voltage is used to actuate or move mechanical components, it is observed that when the applied voltage exceeds a critical value, electrostatic forces become dominant over elastic forces and the mechanical components “pull-in” or collapse into one another. Here, key theoretical results concerning this instability are surveyed and compared to a new experimental study of electrostatic deflections. Gaps between theory and experiment are uncovered and directions for future modeling and analysis indicated.     

Model for curvature-driven pearling instability in membranes

A phase-field model for dealing with dynamic instabilities in membranes is presented. We use it to study curvature-driven pearling instability in vesicles induced by the anchorage of amphiphilic polymers on the membrane. Within this model, we obtain the morphological changes reported in recent experiments. The formation of a homogeneous pearled structure is achieved by consequent pearling of an initial cylindrical tube from the tip. For high enough concentration of anchors, we show theoretically that the homogeneous pearled shape is energetically less favorable than an inhomogeneous one, with a large sphere connected to an array of smaller spheres.     

The effect of shear flow on the Helfrich interaction in lyotropic lamellar systems

We study the effect of shear flow on the entropic Helfrich interaction in lyotropic surfactant smectic fluids. Arguing that flow induces an effective anisotropic surface tension in bilayers due to a combination of intermonolayer friction, bilayer collisions and convection, we calculate the reduction in fluctuations and hence the renormalised change in effective compression modulus and steady-state layer spacing. We demonstrate that non-permeable or slowly permeating membranes can be susceptible to an undulatory instability of the Helfrich-Hurault type, and speculate that such an instability could be one source of a transition to multilamellar vesicles.     

On the surface tension of fluctuating quasi-spherical vesicles

We calculate the stress tensor for a quasi-spherical vesicle and we thermally average it in order to obtain the actual, mechanical, surface tension t \tau of the vesicle. Both closed and poked vesicles are considered. We recover our results for t \tau by differentiating the free energy with respect to the proper projected area. We show that t \tau may become negative well before the transition to oblate shapes and that it may reach quite large negative values in the case of small vesicles. This implies that spherical vesicles may have an inner pressure lower than the outer one.     

Phase transition of the baryon-antibaryon plasma in hot and dense nuclear matter

We investigate the presence of thermodynamic instabilities in a hot and dense nuclear medium where a phase transition from a gas of massive hadrons to a nearly massless baryon, antibaryon plasma can take place. The analysis is performed by requiring the global conservation of baryon number and zero net strangeness in the framework of an effective relativistic mean field theory with the inclusion of the Δ(1232)-isobars, hyperons and the lightest pseudoscalar and vector meson degrees of freedom. Similarly to the low density nuclear liquid-gas phase transition, we show that such a phase transition is characterized by both mechanical instability (fluctuations on the baryon density) that by chemical- diffusive instability (fluctuations on the strangeness concentration). It turns out that, in this situation, phases with different values of antibaryon-baryon ratios and strangeness content may coexist.     

Elastic flow instability in nanotube suspensions

We report an elastic instability associated with flow-induced clustering in semidilute non-Brownian colloidal nanotubes. Rheo-optical measurements are compared with simulations of mechanical flocculation in sheared fiber suspensions, and the evolving structure is characterized as a function of confinement and shear stress. The transient rheology is correlated with the evolution of highly elastic vorticity-aligned aggregates, with the underlying instability being somewhat ubiquitous in complex fluids.     

非对称核物质的化学不稳定性与力学不稳定性

基于扩展的Skyrme有效相互作用,在Hartree-Fock近似下对非对称核物质的化学不稳定性与力学不稳定性进行了研究,并与简单的三参数势,即所谓的软势与硬势的计算结果进行了比较.结果发现两种模型给出的非对称核物质化学不稳定性与力学不稳定性之间的关系是完全不同的.通过研究化学不稳定性在临界温度附近的行为发现,对软势与硬势,化学不稳定性可能出现在温度高于临界温度的气化(全爆炸)机制中.而对于SKM势参数,化学不稳定性不会出现在温度高于临界温度的气化(全爆炸)机制中.这种差别也反映在压强密度平面上力学不稳定 关键词： 非对称核物质状态方程 化学不稳定性 力学不稳定性