3,058 research outputs found

    Diffusion mechanisms of localised knots along a polymer

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    We consider the diffusive motion of a localized knot along a linear polymer chain. In particular, we derive the mean diffusion time of the knot before it escapes from the chain once it gets close to one of the chain ends. Self-reptation of the entire chain between either end and the knot position, during which the knot is provided with free volume, leads to an L^3 scaling of diffusion time; for sufficiently long chains, subdiffusion will enhance this time even more. Conversely, we propose local ``breathing'', i.e., local conformational rearrangement inside the knot region (KR) and its immediate neighbourhood, as additional mechanism. The contribution of KR-breathing to the diffusion time scales only quadratically, L^2, speeding up the knot escape considerably and guaranteeing finite knot mobility even for very long chains.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures. Accepted to Europhys. Let

    Single Chain Force Spectroscopy: Sequence Dependence

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    We study the elastic properties of a single A/B copolymer chain with a specific sequence. We predict a rich structure in the force extension relations which can be addressed to the sequence. The variational method is introduced to probe local minima on the path of stretching and releasing. At given force, we find multiple configurations which are separated by energy barriers. A collapsed globular configuration consists of several domains which unravel cooperatively. Upon stretching, unfolding path shows stepwise pattern corresponding to the unfolding of each domain. While releasing, several cores can be created simultaneously in the middle of the chain resulting in a different path of collapse.Comment: 6 pages 3 figure

    Lattice Boltzmann Simulations of Liquid Crystal Hydrodynamics

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    We describe a lattice Boltzmann algorithm to simulate liquid crystal hydrodynamics. The equations of motion are written in terms of a tensor order parameter. This allows both the isotropic and the nematic phases to be considered. Backflow effects and the hydrodynamics of topological defects are naturally included in the simulations, as are viscoelastic properties such as shear-thinning and shear-banding.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures, Revte

    Solvable model of a polymer in random media with long ranged disorder correlations

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    We present an exactly solvable model of a Gaussian (flexible) polymer chain in a quenched random medium. This is the case when the random medium obeys very long range quadratic correlations. The model is solved in dd spatial dimensions using the replica method, and practically all the physical properties of the chain can be found. In particular the difference between the behavior of a chain that is free to move and a chain with one end fixed is elucidated. The interesting finding is that a chain that is free to move in a quadratically correlated random potential behaves like a free chain with R2LR^2 \sim L, where RR is the end to end distance and LL is the length of the chain, whereas for a chain anchored at one end R2L4R^2 \sim L^4. The exact results are found to agree with an alternative numerical solution in d=1d=1 dimensions. The crossover from long ranged to short ranged correlations of the disorder is also explored.Comment: REVTeX, 28 pages, 12 figures in eps forma

    Correlations in a Generalized Elastic Model: Fractional Langevin Equation Approach

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    The Generalized Elastic Model (GEM) provides the evolution equation which governs the stochastic motion of several many-body systems in nature, such as polymers, membranes, growing interfaces. On the other hand a probe (\emph{tracer}) particle in these systems performs a fractional Brownian motion due to the spatial interactions with the other system's components. The tracer's anomalous dynamics can be described by a Fractional Langevin Equation (FLE) with a space-time correlated noise. We demonstrate that the description given in terms of GEM coincides with that furnished by the relative FLE, by showing that the correlation functions of the stochastic field obtained within the FLE framework agree to the corresponding quantities calculated from the GEM. Furthermore we show that the Fox HH-function formalism appears to be very convenient to describe the correlation properties within the FLE approach

    A renormalization group study of a class of reaction-diffusion model, with particles input

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    We study a class of reaction-diffusion model extrapolating continuously between the pure coagulation-diffusion case (A+AAA+A\to A) and the pure annihilation-diffusion one (A+AA+A\to\emptyset) with particles input (A\emptyset\to A) at a rate JJ. For dimension d2d\leq 2, the dynamics strongly depends on the fluctuations while, for d>2d >2, the behaviour is mean-field like. The models are mapped onto a field theory which properties are studied in a renormalization group approach. Simple relations are found between the time-dependent correlation functions of the different models of the class. For the pure coagulation-diffusion model the time-dependent density is found to be of the form c(t,J,D)=(J/D)1/δF[(J/D)ΔDt]c(t,J,D) = (J/D)^{1/\delta}{\cal F}[(J/D)^{\Delta} Dt], where DD is the diffusion constant. The critical exponent δ\delta and Δ\Delta are computed to all orders in ϵ=2d\epsilon=2-d, where dd is the dimension of the system, while the scaling function F\cal F is computed to second order in ϵ\epsilon. For the one-dimensional case an exact analytical solution is provided which predictions are compared with the results of the renormalization group approach for ϵ=1\epsilon=1.Comment: Ten pages, using Latex and IOP macro. Two latex figures. Submitted to Journal of Physics A. Also available at http://mykonos.unige.ch/~rey/publi.htm

    Field theory for a reaction-diffusion model of quasispecies dynamics

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    RNA viruses are known to replicate with extremely high mutation rates. These rates are actually close to the so-called error threshold. This threshold is in fact a critical point beyond which genetic information is lost through a second-order phase transition, which has been dubbed the ``error catastrophe.'' Here we explore this phenomenon using a field theory approximation to the spatially extended Swetina-Schuster quasispecies model [J. Swetina and P. Schuster, Biophys. Chem. {\bf 16}, 329 (1982)], a single-sharp-peak landscape. In analogy with standard absorbing-state phase transitions, we develop a reaction-diffusion model whose discrete rules mimic the Swetina-Schuster model. The field theory representation of the reaction-diffusion system is constructed. The proposed field theory belongs to the same universality class than a conserved reaction-diffusion model previously proposed [F. van Wijland {\em et al.}, Physica A {\bf 251}, 179 (1998)]. From the field theory, we obtain the full set of exponents that characterize the critical behavior at the error threshold. Our results present the error catastrophe from a new point of view and suggest that spatial degrees of freedom can modify several mean field predictions previously considered, leading to the definition of characteristic exponents that could be experimentally measurable.Comment: 13 page

    Dynamic Critical Phenomena of Polymer Solutions

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    Recently, a systematic experiment measuring critical anomaly of viscosity of polymer solutions has been reported by H. Tanaka and his co-workers (Phys.Rev.E, 65, 021802, (2002)). According to their experiments, the dynamic critical exponent of viscosity y_c drastically decreases with increasing the molecular weight. In this article the kinetic coefficients renormalized by the non-linear hydrodynamic interaction are calculated by the mode coupling theory. We predict that the critical divergence of viscosity should be suppressed with increasing the molecular weight. The diffusion constant and the dynamic structure factor are also calculated. The present results explicitly show that the critical dynamics of polymer solutions should be affected by an extra spatio-temporal scale intrinsic to polymer solutions, and are consistent with the experiment of Tanaka, et al.Comment: 17 pages, 2 figures, to be published in J.Phys.Soc.Jp

    Driven polymer translocation through a nanopore: a manifestation of anomalous diffusion

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    We study the translocation dynamics of a polymer chain threaded through a nanopore by an external force. By means of diverse methods (scaling arguments, fractional calculus and Monte Carlo simulation) we show that the relevant dynamic variable, the translocated number of segments s(t)s(t), displays an {\em anomalous} diffusive behavior even in the {\em presence} of an external force. The anomalous dynamics of the translocation process is governed by the same universal exponent α=2/(2ν+2γ1)\alpha = 2/(2\nu +2 - \gamma_1), where ν\nu is the Flory exponent and γ1\gamma_1 - the surface exponent, which was established recently for the case of non-driven polymer chain threading through a nanopore. A closed analytic expression for the probability distribution function W(s,t)W(s, t), which follows from the relevant {\em fractional} Fokker - Planck equation, is derived in terms of the polymer chain length NN and the applied drag force ff. It is found that the average translocation time scales as τf1N2α1\tau \propto f^{-1}N^{\frac{2}{\alpha} -1}. Also the corresponding time dependent statistical moments, tα \propto t^{\alpha} and t2α \propto t^{2\alpha} reveal unambiguously the anomalous nature of the translocation dynamics and permit direct measurement of α\alpha in experiments. These findings are tested and found to be in perfect agreement with extensive Monte Carlo (MC) simulations.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, accepted to Europhys. Lett; some references were supplemented; typos were correcte
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