Confinement of spherical colloid particles in a soft fluid membrane tube

We investigate the structure of multiple spherical particles confined in a soft membrane tube that originally has a cylindrical shape. Assuming an attraction energy between the surface of the spherical particle and the inner wall of the membrane tube, we show that a variety of conformational structures can be stabilized on the basis of analyzing a Helfrich energy for the soft tube. Using a numerical approach, we calculate the phase diagram in terms of basic parameters in the system. Structures that prefer close contact of spheres and structures that contain well separated spheres are found in this calculation.