Scheme of an aqueous solution of an integral membrane protein (IMP) at detergent concentrations above (Na,pm[IMP] + c.m.c.), which contains detergent monomers (m) and uniform empty detergent micelles (em) in addition to uniform IMP-containing micelles (pm) (at concentrations below (Na,pm[IMP] + c.m.c.), the amount of detergent is not sufficient to support a homogeneous population of IMP-loaded micelles; see text). The information content of NMR experiments with observation of detergent signals depends on the detergent exchange rates along the pathways indicated by arrows (see text), where thick arrows represent micelle–monomer exchange, and thin arrows represent micelle–to-micelle exchange of detergent monomers medicated by collisions between the micelles.