Analyzing Simulations of Lipid Mixtures: Phase Boundaries, Tie-Lines and Critical Points

Phase boundaries near critical end points. I. Thermodynamics and universality.

The vicinity of a critical end point is analyzed in order to reveal singularities arising in the form of the first-order phase boundary to the noncritical phase. Phenomenological arguments are presented and critically assessed that directly relate the nonanalytic behavior of the phase boundary to universal features of the bulk thermodynamics on the associated critical line. Explicit values are ...

Fluorescence methods to detect phase boundaries in lipid bilayer mixtures.

Phase diagrams of lipid mixtures can show several different regions of phase coexistence, which include liquid-disordered, liquid-ordered, and gel phases. Some phase regions are small, and some have sharp boundaries. The identity of the phases, their location in composition space, and the nature of the transitions between the phases are important for understanding the behavior of lipid mixtures...

Phase diagrams and lipid domains in multicomponent lipid bilayer mixtures.

Understanding the phase behavior of biological membranes is helped by the study of more simple systems. Model membranes that have as few as 3 components exhibit complex phase behavior that can be well described, providing insight for biological membranes. A number of different studies are in agreement on general findings for some compositional phase diagrams, in particular, those that model the...

Fluid-phase behavior of binary mixtures in which one component can have two critical points.

We investigate theoretically the binary fluid-phase behavior of mixtures in which one water-like component can have two critical points. We consider three equal-sized nonpolar solutes that differ in the strength of their dispersive interactions (a1 < a2 < a3, where a denotes the van der Waals attractive parameter). In each case, we compare the phase behavior predicted using two sets of paramete...

Theory of phase equilibria and critical mixing points in binary lipid bilayers