Topological changes in vesicle membranes

Develop an extension of the SPH–mesh vesicle-dynamics method that can handle topological changes such as membrane rupture, budding, and fission, potentially by exploiting the Lagrangian particle-based description or replacing the triangulated mesh with a purely particle-based membrane representation.

Background

The proposed method represents the vesicle membrane with a fixed-connectivity triangulated mesh. During the ADE-model simulation of a stomatocyte under shear, the membrane neck approaches rupture, but the computation must stop because the mesh cannot represent the resulting topological change. The authors explicitly identify the inability to handle rupture, budding, and fission as an open direction and suggest a particle-based membrane representation as a possible way to capture membrane breakup, endocytosis, budding, and the formation of new vesicles.

References

Several directions remain open for future work. The current scheme cannot yet handle topological changes such as membrane rupture, budding, and fission. A promising extension is to more fully exploit the Lagrangian nature of the particle-based description, or even to replace the triangulated mesh with a purely particle-based membrane representation, which would enable a more faithful treatment of membrane breakup, vesicle endocytosis, budding, and the formation of new vesicles.

— An SPH--mesh Coupling for Vesicle Dynamics in Shear Flow  (2608.25522 - Wang et al., 26 Aug 2026) in Section Conclusions