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arXiv · 1811.03599

Stabilization and Destabilization of Semiflexible Polymers Induced by Spherical Confinement

Martin Marenz·Johannes Zierenberg·Wolfhard Janke
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Abstract

Spherical confinement can act either stabilizing or destabilizing on the collapsed state of a semi-flexible polymer. General free-energy arguments suggest that the order of the unconstrained collapse transition is the distinguishing factor: First order implies stabilization, second order causes destabilization. We confirm this conjecture by Monte Carlo simulations of a coarse-grained model for semiflexible polymers whose chain stiffness tunes the transition order. The resulting physical picture is potentially relevant for other systems under strong confinement such as proteins and DNA.

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Martin Marenz, Johannes Zierenberg, Wolfhard Janke. 2018-11-08. Stabilization and Destabilization of Semiflexible Polymers Induced by Spherical Confinement. https://arxiv.org/abs/1811.03599

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