Flippy: membrane simulations made easy and fast

Abstract

Membranes are difficult objects to simulate. They are two dimensional fluids embedded in three dimensions that can adopt complex geometric shapes. They can flow like fluids or deform like elastic solids depending on the type of applied stress. Capturing this behaviour for the purposes of a coarse-grained Monte Carlo simulation requires an implementation of a dynamic surface triangulation, a very difficult problem, prone to hard to find bugs and performance pitfalls.