Epifanio Virga
University of Pavia
Italy
Abstract: Vesicles are lipid membranes which play an essential role in the cell structure. In the vicinity of a rigid wall, which could well mimic a hard tissue, vesicles feel forces that would make them adhere to the wall. This lecture presents a mathematical model for the motion of vesicles subject to such adhesive forces; it is mainly concerned with dynamics in two space dimensions. The evolution of a vesicle is governed by a non-local equation: the normal velocity of a point depends on the whole shape. Several computer animations illustrate the main features of this equation.