Ref HAL: hal-00123812_v1
PMID 17930986
Ref Arxiv: cond-mat/0612588
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.99.088103
WoS: 000248984900055
Ref. & Cit.: NASA ADS
Exporter : BibTex | endNote
41 Citations
Résumé:

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.