Fluctuation spectrum of quasispherical membranes with force-dipole activity

Abstract

The fluctuation spectrum of a quasi-spherical vesicle with active membrane proteins is calculated. The activity of the proteins is modeled as the proteins pushing on their surroundings giving rise to non-local force distributions. Both the contributions from the thermal fluctuations of the active protein densities and the temporal noise in the individual active force distributions of the proteins are taken into account. The noise in the individual force distributions is found to become significant at short wavelengths.