Related papers: Stick-release pattern in stretching single condens…
Force-induced deformations of a self-avoiding chain confined inside a cylindrical cavity, with diameter $D$, are probed using molecular dynamics simulations, scaling analysis, and analytical calculations. We obtain and confirm a simple…
Solutions of polymer chains are modelled using non-equilibrium Brownian dynamics simulations, with physically associative beads which form reversible crosslinks to establish a system-spanning physical gel network. Rheological properties…
Using Molecular Dynamics simulations, we study the force-induced detachment of a coarse-grained model polymer chain from an adhesive substrate. One of the chain ends is thereby pulled at constant speed off the attractive substrate and the…
Properties of polyelectrolytes in tetravalent salt solutions are intensively investigated by a coarse-grained model. The concentration of salt and the size of tetravalent counterions are found playing a decisive role on chain properties. If…
Constant temperature molecular dynamics simulations were used to study solutions of flexible polyelectrolyte chains at nonzero concentrations with explicit counterions and unscreened coulombic interactions. Counterion condensation, measured…
We experimentally study the transient motion of a colloidal particle actively dragged by an optical trap through different viscoelastic fluids (wormlike micelles, polymer solutions, and entangled $\lambda$-phage DNA). We observe that, after…
We perform molecular dynamics simulation on a glass-forming liquid binary mixture with the soft-core potential in three dimensions. We investigate crossover of the configuration changes caused by stringlike jump motions. With lowering the…
Force extension curves (FECs), which quantify the response of a variety of biomolecules subject to mechanical force ($f$), are often quantitatively fit using worm-like chain (WLC) or freely-jointed chain (FJC) models. These models predict…
While stretching of most polymer chains leads to rather featureless force-extension diagrams, some, notably DNA, exhibit non-trivial behavior with a distinct plateau region. Here we propose a unified theory that connects force-extension…
Using analytic theory, numerical calculation and Langevin dynamics simulation we demonstrate the existence of a first order unraveling transition in the stretching of a polymer chain in a poor solvent. The chain suddenly unravels from a…
Single molecule experiments on single- and double stranded DNA have sparked a renewed interest in the force-extension of polymers. The extensible Freely Jointed Chain (FJC) model is frequently invoked to explain the observed behavior of…
We develop a continuum elastic approach to examining the bending mechanics of semiflexible filaments with a local internal degree of freedom that couples to the bending modulus. We apply this model to study the nonlinear mechanics of a…
We consider the non--equilibrium dynamics of a chain of classical rotators coupled at its edges to an external reservoir at zero temperature. We find that the energy is released in a strongly discontinuous fashion, with sudden jumps…
Single-chain elasticity is of fundamental importance in polymer physics, as it underlies many of the unique properties of polymer systems. Recently, there has been interest in characterizing the elastic properties of catenanes, molecular…
Recently experiments showed that some biological noncovalent bonds increase their lifetimes when they are stretched by an external force, and their lifetimes will decrease when the force increases further. Several specific quantitative…
Using a continuum description, we account for fluctuations in the ionic solvent surrounding a Gaussian, charged chain and derive an effective short-ranged potential between the charges on the chain. This potential is repulsive at short…
DNA toroids are compact torus-shaped bundles formed by one or multiple DNA molecules being condensed from the solution due to various condensing agents. It has been shown that the DNA toroidal bundles are twisted. However, the global…
Material renewability in active living systems, such as in cells and tissues, can drive the large-scale patterning of forces, with distinctive phenotypic consequences. This is especially significant in the cell cytoskeleton, where multiple…
Magnetic tweezers are used to study the mechanical response under torsion of single nucleosome arrays reconstituted on tandem repeats of 5S positioning sequences. Regular arrays are extremely resilient and can reversibly accommodate a large…
Polyelectrolytes in poor solvents show a necklace structure where collapsed polymer pearls are linked to stretched strings. In the present paper the elasticity of such chains is studied in detail. Different deformation regimes are…