Closed Form Results for Shape Transitions in Lipid Monolayer Domains

Isolated domains in lipid monolayers exhibit shape transitions as a consequence of the competing effects of line tension and long-range dipolar interactions. Nontrivial integrals ultimately arise in stability analysis calculations of these domains. In this work we present a closed form evaluation of such integrals in terms of associated Legendre functions. Our approach is motivated by and extends the work of J. M. Deutch and F. E. Low ( J. Phys. Chem. 1992, 96, 7097−7101). Our closed form solutions lead to simpler analytic expressions for stability thresholds, which are easier to evaluate explicitly. Relevant asymptotic behavior is calculated in various limits of interest. For the case of Coulomb interactions, a general closed form expression is obtained for the critical domain radii.