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Mechanical denaturation of DNA: existence of a low temperature denaturation

Enzo Orlandini, Somendra M. Bhattacharjee, Davide Marenduzzo, Amos Maritan, Flavio Seno

cond-mat.stat-mecharXiv:cond-mat/0109521

Abstract

Recent theoretical predictions on DNA mechanical separation induced by pulling forces are numerically tested within a model in which self-avoidance for DNA strands is fully taken into account. DNA strands are described by interacting pairs of self avoiding walks (SAW) which are pulled apart by a force applied at the two extremities. The whole phase diagram is spanned by extensive Monte Carlo (MC) simulations and the existence of a low temperature denaturation is confirmed. The basic features of the phase diagram and the re-entrant phase boundary are also obtained with a simple heuristic argument based on an energy-entropy estimate.

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