中国物理B ›› 2016, Vol. 25 ›› Issue (8): 88701-088701.doi: 10.1088/1674-1056/25/8/088701

• INTERDISCIPLINARY PHYSICS AND RELATED AREAS OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY • 上一篇    下一篇

Effect of a force-free end on the mechanical property of a biopolymer–A path integral approach

Zicong Zhou(周子聪), Béla Joós   

  1. 1 Department of Physics, Tamkang University, Taiwan, China;
    2 Ottawa Carleton Institute for Physics, University of Ottawa Campus, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K1 N-6 N5
  • 收稿日期:2015-11-10 修回日期:2016-03-30 出版日期:2016-08-05 发布日期:2016-08-05
  • 通讯作者: Zicong Zhou E-mail:zzhou@mail.tku.edu.tw
  • 基金资助:

    Project supported by the MOST and the NSERC (Canada).

Effect of a force-free end on the mechanical property of a biopolymer–A path integral approach

Zicong Zhou(周子聪)1, Béla Joós2   

  1. 1 Department of Physics, Tamkang University, Taiwan, China;
    2 Ottawa Carleton Institute for Physics, University of Ottawa Campus, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K1 N-6 N5
  • Received:2015-11-10 Revised:2016-03-30 Online:2016-08-05 Published:2016-08-05
  • Contact: Zicong Zhou E-mail:zzhou@mail.tku.edu.tw
  • Supported by:

    Project supported by the MOST and the NSERC (Canada).

摘要:

We study the effect of a force-free end on the mechanical property of a stretched biopolymer. The system can be divided into two parts. The first part consists of the segment counted from the fixed point (i.e., the origin) to the forced point in the biopolymer, with arclength Lf. The second part consists of the segment counted from the forced point to the force-free end with arclength ΔL. We apply the path integral technique to find the relationship between these two parts. At finite temperature and without any constraint at the end, we show exactly that if we focus on the quantities related to the first part, then we can ignore the second part completely. Monte Carlo simulation confirms this conclusion. In contrast, the effect for the quantities related to the second part is dependent on what we want to observe. A force-free end has little effect on the relative extension, but it affects seriously the value of the end-to-end distance if ΔL is comparable to Lf.

关键词: statistical physics, path integral, biopolymers, mechanical property

Abstract:

We study the effect of a force-free end on the mechanical property of a stretched biopolymer. The system can be divided into two parts. The first part consists of the segment counted from the fixed point (i.e., the origin) to the forced point in the biopolymer, with arclength Lf. The second part consists of the segment counted from the forced point to the force-free end with arclength ΔL. We apply the path integral technique to find the relationship between these two parts. At finite temperature and without any constraint at the end, we show exactly that if we focus on the quantities related to the first part, then we can ignore the second part completely. Monte Carlo simulation confirms this conclusion. In contrast, the effect for the quantities related to the second part is dependent on what we want to observe. A force-free end has little effect on the relative extension, but it affects seriously the value of the end-to-end distance if ΔL is comparable to Lf.

Key words: statistical physics, path integral, biopolymers, mechanical property

中图分类号:  (Elasticity theory)

  • 87.10.Pq
36.20.Ey (Conformation (statistics and dynamics)) 87.15.A- (Theory, modeling, and computer simulation) 87.10.-e (General theory and mathematical aspects)