JETP Letters: issues online

The influence of a high ( ${\sim} 1$ V/nm) external electric field on biological soft matter systems has been widely studied for a long time. However, a detailed understanding of the behavior of density fluctuations in such systems under a high electric field is still an open problem. Here, we develop a statistical model of short-wavelength density fluctuations in the hydrophobic region of a lipid bilayer in an external quasistatic uniform electric field. On the basis of this model, we derive the Brillouin components of the dynamic structure factor of the system from first principles. We also compare the results of the developed theory with new results of MD simulations on the initiation of lipid bilayer electropores to show a nearly perfect agreement. We show that the presented theory could be applied to handle a broad range of similar soft matter systems as well as nonpolar dielectric fluids.