Pulling Pinned Polymers and Unzipping DNA
Soft Condensed Matter
2009-10-31 v2 Disordered Systems and Neural Networks
Biological Physics
Biomolecules
Abstract
We study a class of micromanipulation experiments, exemplified by the pulling apart of the two strands of double-stranded DNA (dsDNA). When the pulling force is increased to a critical value, an ``unzipping'' transition occurs. For random DNA sequences with short-ranged correlations, we obtain exact results for the number of monomers liberated and the specific heat, including the critical behavior at the transition. Related systems include a random heteropolymer pulled away from an adsorbing surface and a vortex line in a type II superconductor tilted away from a fragmented columnar defect.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0004423,
title = {Pulling Pinned Polymers and Unzipping DNA},
author = {David K. Lubensky and David R. Nelson},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0004423},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
4 pages, 1 EPS figure; revised references and very brief discussion of order of the transition added; to appear in Phys. Rev. Lett