Internal States of Active Inclusions and the Dynamics of an Active Membrane

A theoretical model of a two-component fluid membrane containing lipids and two-state active inclusions is presented. This model predicts several nonequilibrium morphology transitions. (i) Active pumping of the inclusions can drive a long-wavelength undulation instability. (ii) Active excitation of the inclusions can induce aggregation of high-curvature excited inclusions. (iii) Active inclusion conformation changes can produce finite-size domains. The resulting steady state domain size depends on inclusion activities. For a stable membrane the height fluctuation spectrum in the long-wavelength limit is similar to previous studies which neglected the inclusion internal states.