Molecular elasticity and the geometric phase
Condensed Matter
2009-11-07 v4 Biomolecules
Quantum Physics
Abstract
We present a method for solving the Worm Like Chain (WLC) model for twisting semiflexible polymers to any desired accuracy. We show that the WLC free energy is a periodic function of the applied twist with period 4 pi. We develop an analogy between WLC elasticity and the geometric phase of a spin half system. These analogies are used to predict elastic properties of twist-storing polymers. We graphically display the elastic response of a single molecule to an applied torque. This study is relevant to mechanical properties of biopolymers like DNA.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0203491,
title = {Molecular elasticity and the geometric phase},
author = {Joseph Samuel and Supurna Sinha},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0203491},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
five pages, one figure, revtex, revised in the light of referee's comments, to appear in PRL