Due to a thermodynamic coupling between the two leaflets comprising a lipid bilayer, compositional lipid domains residing within opposing leaflets are often found in registry. If the system is perturbed by displacing one domain relative to the other, diffusive and advective lipid fluxes are established to restore equilibrium and reestablish domain overlap. In this work, we focus on the advective part of the process, and first derive an analytical expression for the hydrodynamic drag coefficient associated with the advective flow for the special case of perfect domain overlap. The resulting expression identifies parameter regions where sliding friction between the leaflets dominates over viscous dissipation within the leaflets or vice versa. It is shown that in all practically relevant cases, sliding friction between the leaflets is the dominant factor. Finally, we investigate the domain separation dependence of the hydrodynamic drag coefficient via direct simulations of a continuum diffuse interface model, and provide useful empirical expressions for its behavior.

• Received 2 June 2013
• Revised 10 February 2014

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.89.032717