Instability and "Pearling" States Produced in Tubular Membranes by Competition of Curvature and Tension

Roy Bar-Ziv and Elisha Moses
Phys. Rev. Lett. 73, 1392 – Published 5 September 1994
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Abstract

We investigate the stability of tubular fluid membranes by perturbing them with optical tweezers. A peristaltic instability appears, with wavelength on the order of the tube circumference, characterized by tautness and suppression of curvature fluctuations in the membrane. We interpret this in terms of a model that includes a surface tension term in the elastic energy, and describes a transition to stable, finite amplitude peristaltic states. At high amplitudes the experiment reveals new dynamic states of "pearls" interconnected via thin tubes along which they travel and aggregate.

  • Received 19 April 1994

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.73.1392

©1994 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Roy Bar-Ziv and Elisha Moses

  • Department of Physics of Complex Systems, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel

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Vol. 73, Iss. 10 — 5 September 1994

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