Fig. 6: Interfacial tension Σ_αβ (green circles), bilayer tension Σ_αγ (red squares) of the membrane segment αγ, and bilayer tension Σ_βγ (blue diamonds) of the membrane segment βγ as functions of the lipid number N_ol in the outer bilayer leaflet.

All nanovesicles have the same volume ν = ν₀. The data in a–c are obtained for the three droplet diameters 11.2 nm, 15 nm, and 19.6 nm, respectively. Each data point represents the mean value over n = 15 statistically independent samples obtained from three replicated simulations. Each error bar is the SEM. The largest surface tension is provided by the interfacial tension Σ_αβ, which is essentially independent of both the lipid number N_ol and the droplet size. For all three droplet sizes, the segment tension Σ_αγ increases linearly and the segment tension Σ_βγ decreases linearly as we increase the lipid number N_ol. The numerical values of the different surface tensions are provided in Table 1. For each droplet size, linear interpolation (broken lines) then leads to a characteristic value of N_ol, denoted by \({N}_{{{\rm{ol}}}}^{=}\), with identical membrane tensions Σ_αγ = Σ_βγ of the two membrane segments. The numerical values of \({N}_{{{\rm{ol}}}}^{=}\) depend on the droplet size, see penultimate column of Table 1.