Nonequilibrium Fluctuations, Traveling Waves, and Instabilities in Active Membranes

Ramaswamy, Sriram and Toner, John and Prost, Jacques (2000) Nonequilibrium Fluctuations, Traveling Waves, and Instabilities in Active Membranes. In: Physical Review Letters, 84 (15). pp. 3494-3497.

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Abstract

The stability of a flexible fluid membrane containing a distribution of mobile, active proteins (e.g., proton pumps) is shown to depend on the structure and functional asymmetry of the proteins. A stable active membrane is in a nonequilibrium steady state with height fluctuations whose statistical properties are governed by the protein activity. Disturbances are predicted to travel as waves at sufficiently long wavelength, with speed set by the normal velocity of the pumps. The unstable case involves a spontaneous, pump-driven undulation of the membrane, with clumping of the proteins in regions of high activity.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	Physical Review Letters
Publisher:	American Physical Society
Additional Information:	Copyright of this article belongs to American Physical Society.
Department/Centre:	Division of Physical & Mathematical Sciences > Physics
Date Deposited:	19 Aug 2008
Last Modified:	19 Sep 2010 04:49
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/15616

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