Molecular Self-Organization of Three-Component Lipid Membranes

Abstract

By constructing a Landau-like energy functional, we investigate the molecular organization of a three-component mixture in cell membranes. In the strongly interacting limit, we model the interaction between molecules using pseudospin variables and convert them into non-interacting variables using a mean-field theory. Next, we construct the two-order parameter Landau-type energy functional through the Helmholtz free energy. By analyzing the Landau free energy, we map out the phase diagram focusing on homogeneous and various phase separated states on the cell membrane.