Dielectric behaviour of non-spherical cell suspensions

Recent experiments revealed that the dielectric dispersion spectrum of fiss ion yeast cells in a suspension was mainly composed of two sub-dispersions. The low-frequency sub-dispersion depended on the cell length, whereas the high-frequency one was independent of it. The cell shape effect was qualita tively simulated by an ellipsoidal-cell model. However, the comparison betw een theory and experiment was far from being satisfactory. In an attempt to close up the gap between theory and experiment, we considered the more rea listic cells of spherocylinders, i.e, circular cylinders with two hemispher ical caps at both ends. We have formulated a Green function formalism for c alculating the spectral representation of cells of finite length. The Green function can be reduced because of the azimuthal symmetry of the cell. Thi s simplification enables us to calculate the dispersion spectrum and hence assess the effect of cell structure on the dielectric behaviour of cell sus pensions.