Abstract
We show that fluctuating tethered membranes with any intrinsic anisotropy unavoidably exhibit a new phase between the previously predicted “flat” and “crumpled” phases, in high spatial dimensions d where the crumpled phase exists. In this new “tubule” phase, the membrane is crumpled in one direction but extended nearly straight in the other. Its average thickness is with L the intrinsic size of the membrane. This phase is more likely to persist down to than the crumpled phase. In Flory theory, the universal exponent , which we conjecture is an exact result. We study the elasticity and fluctuations of the tubule state, and the transitions into it.
- Received 6 March 1995
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.75.4752
©1995 American Physical Society