INHOMOGENEOUS CORRELATION-FUNCTIONS FOR A PLANAR MEMBRANE MODEL NEURON

This paper is an investigation into the distribution of mobile ionic s pecies (such as Na+, K+, Ca2+ and Cl-) adjacent to the membrane walls of a model neuron. The geometry of the model neuron is that of the sla b surrounded by electrolyte system considered by S. L. Carnie and D. Y . C. Chan, 1984, Molec. Phys., 51, 1047. The formulation of the electr ostatic potentials is via the BBGKY hierarchy for the molecular distri bution functions in the civilized model of an electrolyte and is simil ar to a derivation for the primitive model (C. W. Outhwaite, 1978, J. chem. Soc. Faraday Trans. ii, 74, 1214), although the usual assumption of bulk electroneutrality is replaced by the macroscopic electro-neut rality condition with the inclusion of surface charges. This has parti cular relevance to the modelling of the electrolyte for a neuron. The results obtained for the pair correlation functions indicate a shieldi ng both in the normal and transverse directions. This is contrasted wi th the algebraic form in both directions for the one plate system.