First-order phase transition of fixed connectivity surfaces

Abstract

We report a numerical evidence of the discontinuous transition of a tethered membrane model which is defined within a framework of the membrane elasticity of Helfrich. Two kinds of phantom tethered membrane models are studied via the canonical Monte Carlo simulation on triangulated fixed connectivity surfaces of spherical topology. A surface model is defined by the Gaussian term and the bending energy term, and the other, which is tensionless, is defined by the bending energy term and a hard wall potential. The bending energy is defined by using the normal vector at each vertex. Both of the models undergo the first-order phase transition characterized by a gap of the bending energy. The phase structure of the models depends on the choice of discrete bending energy.