Different pathways in mechanical unfolding/folding cycle of a single semiflexible polymer |
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Authors: | Email author" target="_blank">N?YoshinagaEmail author K?Yoshikawa T?Ohta |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Physics, Graduate School of Sciences, Kyoto University, 606-8502 Kyoto, Japan;(2) Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics, Kyoto University, 606-8502 Kyoto, Japan |
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Abstract: | Kinetics of conformational change of a semiflexible polymer under mechanical external field were investigated with Langevin dynamics simulations. It is found that a semiflexible polymer exhibits large hysteresis in mechanical folding/unfolding cycle even with a slow operation, whereas in a flexible polymer, the hysteresis almost disappears at a sufficiently slow operation. This suggests that the essential features of the structural transition of a semiflexible polymer should be interpreted at least on a two-dimensional phase space. The appearance of such large hysteresis is discussed in relation to different pathways in the loading and unloading processes. By using a minimal two-variable model, the hysteresis loop is described in terms of different pathways on the transition between two stable states. |
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Keywords: | 36 20 -r Macromolecules and polymer molecules 87 15 La Mechanical properties 05 70 Fh Phase transitions: general studies |
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