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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 18: Biologically Inspired Statistical Physics (joint session DY/BP)

BP 18.3: Talk

Wednesday, March 29, 2023, 15:30–15:45, ZEU 250

Phase behavior and finite-size effects in biology — •Felix Herrmann, Burkhard Duenweg, and Martin Girard — Max-Planck Institut fuer Polymerforschung (MPI-P), Mainz, Germany

Phase behavior observed in biology remains puzzling. For instance, the plasma membrane of cells exhibits signs of criticality, as it is controlled to remain near a demixing point. This membrane contains thousand of components, and it is largely unclear how its composition is controlled. Beyond this, one can ask whether cells should obey the traditional thermodynamic picture, given their small size, large number of components and the presence of non-equilibrium processes.

Here, we study toy systems, lattice models containing many (>30) components. We show that these systems exhibit strong finite-size effects. These manifest as behavior that appears similar to traditional critical behavior, but vanish logarithmically with system size. We examine scaling laws, and whether traditional paradigms from macroscopic thermodynamics can be broken in such systems.