INSTABILITIES OF THE STRIPE PHASE IN LIPID MONOLAYERS

In lipid monolayers consisting of two phases, the competition between line tension and electrostatic repulsion can give rise to a stripe pha se. The stability of this phase with respect to small harmonic distort ions is analyzed. It is shown that the stripe phase is just marginally stable when the stripes are of equilibrium width. As soon as the stri pes exceed this width, coupled long wavelength distortions are energet ically favored. Intermediate results concerning the stability of a sin gle edge and a single stripe are also presented.