Characteristics of the polymer transport in ratchet systems

Abstract
Molecules with complex internal structure in time-dependent periodic potentials are studied by using short Rubinstein-Duke model polymers as an example. We extend our earlier work on transport in stochastically varying potentials to cover also deterministic potential switching mechanisms, energetic efficiency, and nonuniform charge distributions. We also use currents in the nonequilibrium steady state to identify the dominating mechanisms that lead to polymer transportation and analyze the evolution of the macroscopic state e.g., total and head-to-head lengths of the polymers. Several numerical methods are used to solve the master equations and nonlinear optimization problems. The dominating transport mechanisms are found via graph optimization methods. The results show that small changes in the molecule structure and the environment variables can lead to large increases of the drift. The drift and the coherence can be amplified by using deterministic flashing potentials and customized polymer charge distributions. Identifying the dominating transport mechanism by graph analysis tools is found to give insight in how the molecule is transported by the ratchet effect.
Main Authors
Format
Articles Research article
Published
2010
Series
Subjects
Publication in research information system
The permanent address of the publication
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:jyu-201508202712Use this for linking
Review status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
1539-3755
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.81.041112
Language
English
Published in
Physical Review E
Citation
License
Open Access
Copyright© 2010 The American Physical Society. Published in this repository with the kind permission of the publisher.

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