Related papers: Compression and stretching of a self-avoiding chai…
We present a scaling theory and Monte Carlo (MC) simulation results for a flexible polymer chain slowly dragged by one end into a nanotube. We also describe the situation when the completely confined chain is released and gradually leaves…
By resorting to the thick-chain model we discuss how the stretching response of a polymer is influenced by the self-avoidance entailed by its finite thickness. The characterization of the force versus extension curve for a thick chain is…
Chemical reactions inside cells are typically subject to the effects both of the cell's confining surfaces and of the viscoelastic behavior of its contents. In this paper, we show how the outcome of one particular reaction of relevance to…
We study the deformation of drops squeezed between the floor and ceiling of a microchannel and subjected to a hyperbolic flow. We observe that the maximum deformation of drops depends on both the drop size and the rate of strain of the…
Using Langevin dynamics simulations, we study elastic response of single semiflexible polyelectrolytes to an external force pulling on the chain ends, to mimic the stretching of DNA molecules by optical tweezers. The linear chains are…
Granular chain packings exhibit a striking emergent strain-stiffening behavior despite the individual looseness of the constitutive chains. Using indentation experiments on such assemblies, we measure an exponential increase in the…
A scaling analysis is presented of the statistics of long DNA confined in nanochannels and nanoslits. It is argued that there are several regimes in between the de Gennes and Odijk limits introduced long ago. The DNA chain folds back on…
The effect of electrostatic interactions on the stretching of DNA is investigated using a simple worm like chain model. In the limit of small force there are large conformational fluctuations which are treated using a self-consistent…
We revisit the classical problem of the behavior of an isolated linear polymer chain in confined spaces, introducing the distinction between two different confinement regimes (the {\it weak} and the {\it strong} confinement regimes,…
We study the swelling of a flexible linear chain composed of active particles by analytical theory and computer simulation. Three different situations are considered: a free chain, a chain confined to an external harmonic trap, and a chain…
Recently single molecule experiments have shown the importance of internal friction in biopolymer dynamics. Such studies also suggested that the internal friction although independent of solvent viscosity has strong dependence on denaturant…
The longitudinal response of single semiflexible polymers to sudden changes in externally applied forces is known to be controlled by the propagation and relaxation of backbone tension. Under many experimental circumstances, realized, e.g.,…
The paper presents a short overview of the theoretical, numerical and experimental works on the critical behavior of a dilute polymer solution of long-flexible polymer chains confined in semi-infinite space restricted by a surface or in a…
A statistical mechanical description of flexible and semi-flexible polymer chains in a poor solvent is developed in the constant force and constant distance ensembles. We predict the existence of many intermediate states at low temperatures…
We study the link between three seeming-disparate cases of self-avoiding polymers: strongly overlapping multiple chains in dilute solution, chains under spherical confinement, and the onset of semi-dilute solutions. Our main result is that…
We study the effect of physical confinement on the capillary infiltration of polymers into cylindrical nanopores using molecular dynamics simulations. In particular, we probe whether the critical contact angle above which capillary rise…
Some important biomolecules (for instance, bacterial FtsZ and eukaryotic DNA) are known to posses spontaneous (intrinsic) curvature. Using a simple extension of the wormlike chain model, we study the response of a weakly bending filament in…
We describe quantitatively a RNA molecule under the influence of an external force exerted at its two ends as in a typical single-molecule experiment. Our calculation incorporates the interactions between nucleotides by using the…
We elucidate the elastic behavior of a wormlike chain in 3D under compression and provide exact solutions for the experimentally accessible force-extension relation in terms of generalized spheroidal wave functions. In striking contrast to…
Motivated by recent nanofluidics experiments, we use Brownian dynamics and Monte Carlo simulations to study the conformation, organization and dynamics of two polymer chains confined to a single box-like cavity. The polymers are modeled as…