2006/12/31 by John Palmeri, J. Palmeri, M. Manghi +3 · 1 citation
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Chemistry · Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Base pair #Chemistry #Configuration entropy #DNA #DNA and Nucleic Acid Chemistry #Denaturation (fissile materials) #Electrostatics and Colloid Interactions #Entropy (arrow of time) #Materials science #Molecular physics #Molecule #Nanopore and Nanochannel Transport Studies #Persistence length #Physics #Quantum mechanics #RADIUS #Thermal #Thermal fluctuations #Thermodynamics #cond-mat.soft #cond-mat.stat-mech #physics.bio-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.99.088103
published as Physical Review Letters 99, 088103 (2007) · 4 pages, 1 figure
openalex publication_date 2007/08/24 · arxiv created 2007/08/28 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
A statistical model of homopolymer DNA, coupling internal base-pair states (unbroken or broken) and external thermal chain fluctuations, is exactly solved using transfer kernel techniques. The dependence on temperature and DNA length of the fraction of denaturation bubbles and their correlation length is deduced. The thermal denaturation transition emerges naturally when the chain fluctuations are integrated out and is driven by the difference in bending (entropy dominated) free energy between broken and unbroken segments. Conformational properties of DNA, such as persistence length and mean-square-radius, are also explicitly calculated, leading, e.g., to a coherent explanation for the experimentally observed thermal viscosity transition.