Abstract
Membranes can be thought of as (d − 1)-dimensional objects fluctuating in d-dimensional space, where usually d = 3. The fluctuations of membranes are governed by their bending energy, in contrast to the fluctuations of interfaces, which are controlled by surface tension (see, for example, Ref.1). Continuum models for both fluid2 and crystalline3 membranes have recently been proposed. Membranes are believed to be crumpled4 for all temperatures T > 0 in spatial dimension d < 3, and to have a crumpling transition at finite temperatures for d > 3. The analysis of these models is rather difficult, even for free membranes. In studying unbinding transitions, it is often useful to look at sytems in reduced spatial dimension d = 2. In this case, membranes become indistingushable from polymers, 1-dimensional objects in d-dimensional space.5 Some of the results presented here may therefore be studied experimentally for polymers adsorbed on a flat substrate.
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Gompper, G. (1991). Unbinding Transitions of Polymers or Membranes in Two Dimensions. In: Peliti, L. (eds) Biologically Inspired Physics. NATO ASI Series, vol 263. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-9483-0_16
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-9483-0_16
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