Issue Eur. Phys. J. E Volume 17, Number 4, August 2005 Page(s) 485 - 491 DOI 10.1140/epje/i2005-10023-9 Published online 23 August 2005

Eur. Phys. J. E 17, 485-491 (2005)
DOI: 10.1140/epje/i2005-10023-9

Different pathways in mechanical unfolding/folding cycle of a single semiflexible polymer

N. Yoshinaga¹, K. Yoshikawa¹ and T. Ohta<sup>2

1</sup>  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

yoshinaga@scphys.kyoto-u.ac.jp

(Received 8 February 2005 / Published online 23 August 2005)

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.

PACS
36.20.-r - Macromolecules and polymer molecules.
87.15.La - Mechanical properties.
05.70.Fh - Phase transitions: general studies.

Correspondence: yoshinaga@scphys.kyoto-u.ac.jp


© EDP Sciences, Società Italiana di Fisica, Springer-Verlag 2005

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