  Considering two rigid conical inclusions embedded in a membrane subject to
lateral tension, we study the membrane-mediated interaction between these
inclusions that originates from the hat-shaped membrane deformations associated
with the cones. At non-vanishing lateral tensions, the interaction is found to
depend on the orientation of the cones with respect to the membrane plane. The
interaction of inclusions of equal orientation is repulsive at all distances
between them, while the inclusions of opposite orientation repel each other at
small separations, but attract each other at larger ones. Both the repulsive
and attractive forces become stronger with increasing lateral tension. This is
different from what has been predicted on the basis of the same static model
for the case of vanishing lateral tension. Without tension, the inclusions
repel each other at all distances independently of their relative orientation.
We conclude that lateral tension may induce the aggregation of conical membrane
inclusions.
