Morphodynamics of lipid vesicles under osmotic forcing
Abstract
We investigate the dynamics of spherical lipid vesicles subjected to an osmotic shock using continuum simulations of a permeable, area-incompressible fluid membrane with bending elasticity and surface viscosity. The dynamics are governed by a single dimensionless parameter varGamma, which measures the relative strength of osmotic pressure and bending forces. Osmotic forcing drives a three-stage evolution comprising rapid buckling and collapse, smoothing of the resulting wrinkles and ridges, and slow folding into an invaginated morphology resembling the precursor to experimentally observed vesicle-in-vesicle structures. Linear stability analysis predicts the wavelength and growth rate of the initial buckling instability and shows that the dimensionless buckling time scales as varGamma−2, in quantitative agreement with simulations. At longer times, the energy budget reveals a reversal in elastic energy transfer: bending energy accumulated during buckling is released during relaxation and dissipated by membrane viscosity. A scaling analysis of the folding dynamics predicts that the dimensionless folding time scales as varGamma−2/3, again in excellent agreement with simulations. These results provide a continuum description of the mechanisms and widely separated timescales governing osmotically driven membrane collapse and invagination.
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BibTeX
@misc{broussinos2026morphodynamics,
title = {{Morphodynamics of lipid vesicles under osmotic forcing}},
author = {Nicholas Broussinos and David Saintillan},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.38464},
eprint = {2609.38464},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.38464},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Morphodynamics of lipid vesicles under osmotic forcing
AU - Nicholas Broussinos
AU - David Saintillan
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/29
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.38464
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.38464
AB - We investigate the dynamics of spherical lipid vesicles subjected to an osmotic shock using continuum simulations of a permeable, area-incompressible fluid membrane with bending elasticity and surface viscosity. The dynamics are governed by a single dimensionless parameter varGamma, which measures the relative strength of osmotic pressure and bending forces. Osmotic forcing drives a three-stage evolution comprising rapid buckling and collapse, smoothing of the resulting wrinkles and ridges, and slow folding into an invaginated morphology resembling the precursor to experimentally observed vesicle-in-vesicle structures. Linear stability analysis predicts the wavelength and growth rate of the initial buckling instability and shows that the dimensionless buckling time scales as varGamma^−2, in quantitative agreement with simulations. At longer times, the energy budget reveals a reversal in elastic energy transfer: bending energy accumulated during buckling is released during relaxation and dissipated by membrane viscosity. A scaling analysis of the folding dynamics predicts that the dimensionless folding time scales as varGamma^−2/3, again in excellent agreement with simulations. These results provide a continuum description of the mechanisms and widely separated timescales governing osmotically driven membrane collapse and invagination.
ER -