Predicting shapes of polymer-chain-anchored fluid vesicles.

We propose a general method for predicting shapes of fluid vesicles with anchored polymers. The method combines the Helfrich curvature elasticity theory for fluid membranes and the self-consistent field theory for polymers, to determine stable and metastable shapes of the vesicles as well as the segment distributions of the anchored chains. We illustrate the method by investigating the shape change of a fluid vesicle induced by a single anchoring polymer chain. Extension to more complicated systems, such as vesicles with multiple anchored chains, block copolymers, or semiflexible chains, is straightforward.