Geometric theory on the elasticity of bio-membranes

Abstract. The purpose of this paper is to study the shapes and stabilities of biomembranes within the framework of exterior differential forms. After a brief review of the current status in theoretical and experimental studies on the shapes of biomembranes, a geometric scheme is proposed to discuss the shape equation of closed lipid bilayers, the shape equation and boundary conditions of open lipid bilayers and two-component membranes, the shape equation and in-plane strain equations of cell membranes with cross-linking structures, and the stabilities of closed lipid bilayers and cell membranes. The key point of this scheme is to deal with the variational problems on the surfaces embedded in three-dimensional Euclidean space by using exterior differential forms.