  The self-assembly of monoacyl lipids in solution is studied employing a model
in which the lipid's hydrocarbon tail is described within the Rotational
Isomeric State framework and is attached to a simple hydrophilic head.
Mean-field theory is employed, and the necessary partition function of a single
lipid is obtained via a partial enumeration over a large sample of molecular
conformations. The influence of the lipid architecture on the transition
between the lamellar and inverted-hexagonal phases is calculated, and
qualitative agreement with experiment is found.
