Soap film spanning electrically repulsive elastic protein links

Authors

  • Giulia Bevilacqua Politecnico di Milano
  • Luca Lussardi Politecnico di Torino
  • Alfredo Marzocchi Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1478/AAPP.96S3A1

Keywords:

Kirchhoff rod, soap film, elastic protein link, molecular forces, Calculus of Variations

Abstract

We study the equilibrium problem of a mechanical system consisting by two Kirchhoff rods linked in an arbitrary way and also forming knots, constrained not to touch themselves by means of electrical repulsion and tied by a soap film, as a model to describe the interaction between an electrically charged protein and a biomembrane. We prove the existence of a solution with minimum total energy, which may be quite irregular, by using techniques of the Calculus of Variations.

Author Biographies

  • Giulia Bevilacqua, Politecnico di Milano
    MOX - Dipartimento di Matematica Via Bonardi 9, 20133 Milano, Italy
  • Luca Lussardi, Politecnico di Torino
    Dipartimento di Scienze Matematiche ’Giuseppe Luigi Lagrange’ Corso Duca degli Abruzzi 24, 10129 Torino, Italy
  • Alfredo Marzocchi, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore
    Dipartimento di Matematica e Fisica ’Niccolò Tartaglia’ Via Musei 41, 25121 Brescia, Italy
Trinacria

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Published

2018-11-30

Issue

Vol 96, SUPPL NO 3 (2018): M.M.SE.OR.2017

Section

M.M.SE.OR. 2017 (Conference Proceedings)

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