2017/12/15 by A. V. Zampetaki, J. Stockhofe, P. Schmelcher +1 · 11 citations
Chemistry · Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Atomic physics #Bend radius #Bending #Bending stiffness #Bent molecular geometry #Characterization and Applications of Magnetic Nanoparticles #Coulomb #Curvature #Electron #Electrostatics #Electrostatics and Colloid Interactions #Flexural rigidity #Geometry #Ground state #Helix (gastropod) #Materials science #Micro and Nano Robotics #Physics #Protein filament #Pure bending #Quantum mechanics #RADIUS #Range (aeronautics) #Rigidity (electromagnetism) #Thermodynamics #cond-mat.soft #physics.bio-ph #physics.class-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physreve.97.042503
published in Physical review. E 97(4), 042503 (American Physical Society) · 17npages,13 figures
arxiv created 2017/12/15 · openalex publication_date 2018/04/20 · arxiv updated 2018/04/25 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We explore the electrostatic bending response of a chain of charged particles confined on a finite helical filament. We analyze how the energy difference ΔE between the bent and the unbent helical chain scales with the length of the helical segment and the radius of curvature and identify features that are not captured by the standard notion of the bending rigidity, normally used as a measure of bending tendency in the linear response regime. Using ΔE to characterize the bending response of the helical chain we identify two regimes with qualitatively different bending behaviors for the ground state configuration: the regime of small and the regime of large radius-to-pitch ratio, respectively. Within the former regime, ΔE changes smoothly with the variation of the system parameters. Of particular interest are its oscillations with the number of charged particles encountered for commensurate fillings which yield length-dependent oscillations in the preferred bending direction of the helical chain. We show that the origin of these oscillations is the nonuniformity of the charge distribution caused by the long-range character of the Coulomb interactions and the finite length of the helix. In the second regime of large values of the radius-to-pitch ratio, sudden changes in the ground state structure of the charges occur as the system parameters vary, leading to complex and discontinuous variations in the ground state bending response ΔE.