The statistical mechanics of membranes

By M. Bowick, Alex Travesset. 2000

170 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract The fluctuations of two-dimensional extended objects (membranes) is a rich and exciting field with many solid results and a wide range of open issues. We review the distinct universality classes of membranes, determined by the local order, and the associated phase diagrams. After a discussion of several physical examples of membranes we turn to the physics of crystalline (or polymerized) membranes in which the individual monomers are rigidly bound. We discuss the phase diagram with particular attention to the dependence on the degree of self-avoidance and anisotropy. In each case we review and discuss analytic, numerical and experimental predictions of critical exponents and other key observables. Particular emphasis is given to the results obtained from the renormalization group e-expansion. The resulting renormalization group flows and fixed points are illustrated graphically. The full technical details necessary to perform actual calculations are presented in the Appendices. We then turn to a discussion of the role of topological defects whose liberation leads to the hexatic and fluid universality classes. We finish with conclusions and a discussion of promising open directions for the future.

Subfields: Materials Chemistry, Molecular Biology, Physical and Theoretical Chemistry

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/d6257460a32c6c32f49de009c45cc5be9a8704e4

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Materials Chemistry

1. Wei Gao
2. Rui Huang
3. Qiang Lu
4. G. Cao

In Molecular Biology

1. Wei Gao
2. Rui Huang

In Physical and Theoretical Chemistry

1. Qiang Lu
2. Wei Gao
3. Rui Huang

Citations in the corpus

• Thermomechanics of monolayer graphene: Rippling, thermal expansion and elasticity (2014, methodology): “The SM approach has been used extensively for the study of flexible membranes (Bowick and Travesset, 2001; Nelson et al., 2004; Freund, 2013), primarily for biological membranes.”
• NONLINEAR MECHANICS OF SINGLE-ATOMIC-LAYER GRAPHENE SHEETS (2009, background): “Indeed, theoretical studies of flexible membranes [Nelson et al., 2004] have led to the conclusion that anharmonic interactions between long-wavelength bending and stretching phonons could in principle suppress thermal fluctuation and stabilise atomically thin 2D membranes through coupled deformatio”