Driven transport of fluid vesicles through narrow pores

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

The driven transport of fluid vesicles through narrow, cylindrical pores in a linear external potential is studied using Monte Carlo simulations, scaling arguments, and mean-field theory. The mobility of the vesicles increases sharply when the strength f of the driving field exceeds a threshold value f*. For f>f*, the mobility saturates at a value that is essentially independent of the strength of the driving field. The threshold field strength f* is found to scale with the membrane bending rigidity {κ}, the vesicle area A₀, and the pore size rₚ as f*/kBT{~} ({κ}/kBT)^1+β{A}₀^{{{-}}3/2+{{η}}}rₚ^-2η. An analysis of the zero-temperature limit yields the exponents {β}=0 and {η}=1.55, while the Monte Carlo simulations of low-bending-rigidity vesicles are well described by the (effective) exponents {β}{}0.2 and {η}{}2.4.