Related papers: Undulations in a weakly interacting mechanically g…
Biological functions in each animal cell depend on coordinated operations of a wide variety of molecular motors. Some of the these motors transport cargo to their respective destinations whereas some others are mobile workshops which…
We investigate the mechanics of two asymmetric ribbons bound at one end and pulled apart at the other ends. We characterize the elastic junction near the bonding and conceptualize it as a bending boundary layer. While the size of this…
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…
The behaviour and fate of tissue cells is controlled by the rigidity and geometry of their adhesive environment, possibly through forces localized to sites of adhesion. We introduce a mechanical model that predicts cellular force…
RNA folding is a kinetic process governed by the competition of a large number of structures stabilized by the transient formation of base pairs that may induce complex folding pathways and the formation of misfolded structures. Despite of…
We use Wang-Landau and replica exchange techniques to study the effect of an increasing stiffness on the formation of secondary structures in protein-like systems. Two possible models are considered. In both models, a polymer chain is…
We propose a theory based on non-equilibrium thermodynamics to describe the mechanical behavior of an active polymer gel created by the inclusion of molecular motors in its solvent. When activated, these motors attach to the chains of the…
Very recently [Phys. Rev. E 82, 021921 (2010)] a simple mechanism was presented by which a molecule subjected to forced oscillations, out of thermal equilibrium, can maintain quantum entanglement between two of its quantum degrees of…
A general framework for performing event-driven simulations of systems with semi-flexible or rigid bodies interacting under impulsive torques and forces is outlined. Two different approaches are presented. In the first, the dynamics and…
It is established within the Thomas -- Fermi model that a bound state of a proton with a heavy atom should exist. On the one hand, the electrons of the atom screen the proton's field. This decreases the repulsion force between the proton…
We investigate a system of two polarized molecules in a layered trap. The molecules reside in adjacent layers and interact purely via the dipole-dipole interaction. We determine the properties of the ground state of the system as a function…
The twisting deformation of mechanically stretched DNA molecules is studied by a coarse grained Hamiltonian model incorporating the fundamental interactions that stabilize the double helix and accounting for the radial and angular base pair…
We study the coupled dynamics of primary and secondary structure formation (i.e. slow genetic sequence selection and fast folding) in the context of a solvable microscopic model that includes both short-range steric forces and and…
We study theoretically and by means of molecular dynamics (MD) simulations the generation of mechanical force by grafted polyelectrolytes in an external electric field, which favors its adsorption on the grafting plane. The force arises in…
We develop a bonded-particle model for magneto-elastic rods that unifies large deformations, contact, and long-range magnetic interactions within a single discrete-element framework. The rod is discretized into orientable particles…
In recent years, certain molecular crystals have been reported to possess surprising flexibility by undergoing significant elastic or plastic deformation in response to mechanical loads. However, despite this experimental evidence, there…
We propose a model for a molecular junction with internal anharmonic torsional vibrations interacting with an electric current. The Wangsness-Bloch-Redfield master equation approach is used to determine the stationary reduced density matrix…
We study a Markov random process describing a muscle molecular motor behavior. Every motor is either bound up with a thin filament or unbound. In the bound state the motor creates a force proportional to its displacement from the neutral…
By means of Molecular Dynamics simulations, we investigate the elementary process of avalanches and size segregation by surface flow in 2 dimensions: a single ball confined to moving along an inclined line consisting of balls. The global…
Many suspensions contain particles with complex shapes that are affected not only by hydrodynamics, but also by thermal fluctuations, internal kinematic constraints and other long-range non-hydrodynamic interactions. Modeling these systems…