SCALING CONCEPT APPLIED TO THE DEFECT FORMATION CAUSED BY INTERACTIONS BETWEEN MELITTIN AND PHOSPHATIDYLCHOLINE (PC) MODEL MEMBRANES

A simple computer model of defection process caused by interactions be tween melittin and phosphatidylcholine (PC) model membrane has been pr oposed. It leads to a scaling formula which connects the average diame ter (or linear size parameter) of the affected domain with the recipro city of the number of such domains. Some preliminary investigations sh ow the scaling exponent to be a small fractional number between ca. 0. 3 and 0.1, depending on the number of possible infection directions an d the type of lattice taken as a lipid matrix. Such small values of th e scaling exponent can roughly be interpreted in terms of random tesse lations on a plane (like random Voronoi networks), and the whole proce ss displays a statistical self-similarity. The values obtained seem to be, however, small comparable to the scaling exponents characteristic for the faulting process occurring during the earthquake propagation.