Nonequilibrium noise and instabilities in membranes with active pumps

SRIRAM RAMASWAMY, JOHN TONER* and JACQUES PROST

Centre for Condensed Matter Theory, Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Science,

Bangalore 560 012, India

* Department of Physics, University of Oregon, Eugene OR 97408-1274, USA

y Institut Curie, Section de Recherche, 26 rue d'Ulm, 75231 Paris cedex 05, France

Abstract:

We study the statistical properties and dynamics of flexible fluid membranes containing

active transmembrane proteins and find that such active membranes can be either stable or unstableto small disturbances, depending on the signs of certain crucial parameters characterising the protein-membrane interaction. A major finding is that the shape-fluctuation spectrum in the stable case for a zero-tension active membrane has the same form over a large range of length scales as at equilibrium, but with a nonequilibrium ``noise temperature'' determined by the activity.

 

Keywords. Nonequilibrium noise; membranes; active pumps.

PACS Nos 05.40.-a; 87.16.Dg

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