DNA electrophoresis studied with the cage model
Abstract
The cage model for polymer reptation, proposed by Evans and Edwards, and its recent extension to model DNA electrophoresis, are studied by numerically exact computation of the drift velocities for polymers with a length L of up to 15 monomers. The computations show the Nernst-Einstein regime (v ~ E) followed by a regime where the velocity decreases exponentially with the applied electric field strength. In agreement with de Gennes' reptation arguments, we find that asymptotically for large polymers the diffusion coefficient D decreases quadratically with polymer length; for the cage model, the proportionality coefficient is DL^2=0.175(2). Additionally we find that the leading correction term for finite polymer lengths scales as N^{-1/2}, where N=L-1 is the number of bonds.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0101467,
title = {DNA electrophoresis studied with the cage model},
author = {A. van Heukelum and G. T. Barkema and R. H. Bisseling},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0101467},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
LaTeX (cjour.cls), 15 pages, 6 figures, added correctness proof of kink representation approach