Related papers: Statistical mechanics of double-helical polymers
Our previous molecular dynamic simulation studies of simple two-dimensional (2D) systems \cite{matt_big} suggested that both geometrical defects (localized, large-amplitude deviations from hexagonal ordering) and topological defects…
Nucleic acids have been regarded as stiff polymers with long-range flexibility and generally modeled using elastic rod models of polymer physics. Notwithstanding, investigations carried out over the past few years on single fragments of…
We present a pedagogical review of the swelling thermodynamics and phase transitions of polymer gels. In particular, we discuss how features of the volume phase transition of the gel's osmotic equilibrium is analogous to other transitions…
The thermodynamic behavior of collapse transition in a fully flexible coarse-grained model of energy polydisperse polymer (EPP), a statistical model of random heteropolymer, is investigated in an implicit solvent by means of molecular…
We consider thermodynamic properties, e.g. specific heat, magnetic susceptibility, of alternating Heisenberg spin chains. Due to a hidden Ising symmetry these chains can be decomposed into a set of finite chain fragments. The problem of…
The rapid collapse of a polymer, due to external forces or changes in solvent, yields a long-lived `crumpled globule.' The conjectured fractal structure shaped by hierarchical collapse dynamics has proved difficult to establish, even with…
We consider a general discrete model for heterogeneous semiflexible polymer chains. Both the thermal noise and the inhomogeneous character of the chain (the disorder) are modeled in terms of random rotations. We focus on the quenched…
We analyze plane strain cold rolling processes, at large strains but slow strain rates, by finite element modeling. At low temperatures, slow strain rates, and moderate thickness reductions during rolling (at which Bauschinger effect can be…
We investigate the elastic energy stored in a filament pair as a function of applied twist by measuring torque under prescribed end-to-end separation conditions. We show that the torque increases rapidly to a peak with applied twist when…
It is common to study polymer physics through the use of idealized single-chain models, and the most popular of these is the freely jointed chain model. In certain thermodynamic ensembles, statistical mechanical treatment of this model is…
We present using simple scaling arguments and one step replica symmetry breaking a theory for the localization of semiflexible polymers in a quenched random environment. In contrast to completely flexible polymers, localization of…
Simulations show that sliding bilayers of colloidal particles can exhibit a new phase, the ``melt-freeze'' phase, where the layers stochastically alternate between solidlike and liquidlike states. We introduce a mean field phenomenological…
We consider the energy of a randomly charged polymer. We assume that only charges on the same site interact pairwise. We study the lower tails of the energy, when averaged over both randomness, in dimension three or more. As a corollary, we…
We study the influence of some quenched disorder in the sequence of monomers on the entropic elasticity of long polymeric chains. Starting from the Kratky-Porod model, we show numerically that some randomness in the favoured angles between…
A fascinating and open question challenging biochemistry, physics and even geometry is the presence of highly regular motifs such as alpha-helices in the folded state of biopolymers and proteins. Stimulating explanations ranging from…
We consider helical configurations of a cholesteric liquid crystal (CLC) sandwiched between two substrates with homogeneous director orientation favored at both confining plates. We study the CLC twist wavenumber $q$ characterizing the…
Synthetic polymers have a distribution of chain lengths which can be characterized by dispersity, D. Macroscopic properties of polymers are influenced by chain mobility in the melt and manipulating D can significantly impact these…
Tough adhesive hydrogels find broad applications in engineering and medicine. Such hydrogels feature high resistance against both cohesion and adhesion failure. The superior fracture properties may, however, deteriorate when the hydrogels…
We report on quantitative comparisons between simulation results of a bead-spring model and mode-coupling theory calculations for the structural and conformational dynamics of a supercooled, unentangled polymer melt. We find…
The melting of a binary system of charged particles confined in a {\it quasi}-one-dimensional parabolic channel is studied through Monte Carlo simulations. At zero temperature the particles are ordered in parallel chains. The melting is…