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Unzipping DNA by force: thermodynamics and finite size behaviour

Rajeev Kapri, Somendra M. Bhattacharjee

cond-mat.softarXiv:cond-mat/0511531

Abstract

We discuss the thermodynamic behaviour near the force induced unzipping transition of a double stranded DNA in two different ensembles. The Y-fork is identified as the coexisting phases in the fixed distance ensemble. From finite size scaling of thermodynamic quantities like the extensibility, the length of the unzipped segment of a Y-fork, the phase diagram can be recovered. We suggest that such procedures could be used to obtain the thermodynamic phase diagram from experiments on finite length DNA.

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