Anharmonic magnetic deformation of spherical vesicle: Field-induced tension and swelling effects

We have derived an equation, based on Helfrich’s curvature elasticity, describing the equilibrium shape of membrane vesicles in the presence of magnetic fields. We have solved this equation with and without the constraint of constant vesicle area. For vesicles with constant area, an exact calculation using our model confirms Helfrich’s estimate (Helfrich, 1973) [20] and predicts a magnetic field induced surface tension. Without the constant area constraint, our model predicts that vesicles with positive diamagnetic susceptibility anisotropy will swell in magnetic fields. It also predicts the anharmonic magnetic deformation of self-assembled nanocapsules of bola-amphiphilic molecules and the linear birefringence observed by Manyuhina et al. (2007) [22] .