Field theoretical approach for a polymer-containing vesicle

Yutaka Oya and Toshihiro Kawakatsu

Abstract

We simulate the structure of a vesicle that encloses polymers as an example of endocytosis and exocytosis. Simulations are performed by coupling two types of continuum field methods, i.e. the phase field theory for vesicle shape and the self-consistent field theory for polymer conformation. Comparing free energies between prolate and oblate shapes of vesicles as the candidates of equilibrium shape of the vesicle that contains polymers, we show that prolate shape is more stable, where the dominant contribution is the conformation entropy of polymers. We extend the above static simulation to a dynamic one by introducing a flow field that is described by Navier–Stokes equation