A Thermodynamically Consistent Model for Multicomponent Vesicles

Abstract: We develop a thermodynamically consistent diffuse-interface model for multicomponent membranes. The proposed model is derived from a coupled free energy functional that incorporates protein-dependent bending elasticity, diffuse surface tension, a volume penalty, and a membrane-associated Ohta--Kawasaki energy. Applying the Onsager variational principle, we derive a coupled $L<sup>2$ gradient flow system and its energy dissipation law. We then construct a stabilized alternating ETD1 scheme and a stabilized alternating ETDRK2 scheme with Strang-type composition (alternating Strang-ETDRK2). To the best of our knowledge, the proposed alternating Strang-ETDRK2 scheme has not previously been developed and analyzed for coupled phase field systems. We further prove the discrete energy dissipation for both schemes under some regularity assumptions on the numerical solutions. Numerical experiments in two and three dimensions validate the discrete energy dissipation law, and present the protein segregation and membrane deformation produced by the proposed model.