Refusing to twist: demonstration of a line hexatic phase in DNA liquid crystals |
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Authors: | Strey Wang Podgornik Rupprecht Yu Parsegian Sirota |
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Affiliation: | Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, Massachusetts 01003 and NICHD/LPSB, National Institutes of Health, Building 12A/2041, Bethesda, Maryland 20892-5626, USA. |
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Abstract: | We report conclusive high resolution small angle x-ray scattering evidence that long DNA fragments form an untwisted line hexatic phase between the cholesteric and the crystalline phases. The line hexatic phase is a liquid-crystalline phase with long-range hexagonal bond-orientational order, long-range nematic order, but liquidlike, i.e., short-range, positional order. So far, it has not been seen in any other three dimensional system. By line-shape analysis of x-ray scattering data we found that positional order decreases when the line hexatic phase is compressed. We suggest that such anomalous behavior is a result of the chiral nature of DNA molecules. |
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