The undulation force; theoretical results versus experimental demonstrations.
In 1978 Wolfgang Helfrich published a paper (Helfrich W. Z Naturforsch 1978; 33a:305) where he introduced the notion of an undulation force between bilayers. This is caused by thermal excitations of the bending modes being restricted by the presence of neighboring layers. Although there is now a consensus on the qualitative picture put forward by Helfrich there is still a debate concerning the qua