Unwinding relaxation dynamics of polymers
Abstract
The relaxation dynamics of a polymer wound around a fixed obstacle constitutes a fundamental instance of polymer with twist and torque and it is of relevance also for DNA denaturation dynamics. We investigate it by simulations and Langevin equation analysis. The latter predicts a relaxation time scaling as a power of the polymer length times a logarithmic correction related to the equilibrium fluctuations of the winding angle. The numerical data support this result and show that at short times the winding angle decreases as a power-law. This is also in agreement with the Langevin equation provided a winding-dependent friction is used, suggesting that such reduced description of the system captures the basic features of the problem.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1301.2777,
title = {Unwinding relaxation dynamics of polymers},
author = {Jean-Charles Walter and Marco Baiesi and Gerard Barkema and Enrico Carlon},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1301.2777},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
4 pages, 5 figures. Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Lett