Numerical Study of Membrane Configurations

Figure 4

Monte Carlo evolution of the vesicle with pressure difference from an initial quasispherical state towards an equilibrium stomatocyte state. The reduced volume of the vesicle is shown as a function of the Monte Carlo time (measured in mcs). The average reduced volume in the equilibrium stomatocyte state is , while in the metastable oblate discocyte state it is . The snapshots of the initial quasispherical, discocyte, and stomatocyte states are shown for the appropriate values of the reduced volume.