TY - JOUR
T1 - Molecular recognition by van der Waals interaction between polymers with sequence-specific polarizabilities
AU - Lu, Bing Sui
AU - Naji, Ali
AU - Podgornik, Rudolf
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 AIP Publishing LLC.
PY - 2015/6/7
Y1 - 2015/6/7
N2 - We analyze van der Waals interactions between two rigid polymers with sequence-specific, anisotropic polarizabilities along the polymer backbones, so that the dipole moments fluctuate parallel to the polymer backbones. Assuming that each polymer has a quenched-in polarizability sequence which reflects, for example, the polynucleotide sequence of a double-stranded DNA molecule, we study the van der Waals interaction energy between a pair of such polymers with rod-like structure for the cases where their respective polarizability sequences are (i) distinct and (ii) identical, with both zero and non-zero correlation length of the polarizability correlator along the polymer backbones in the latter case. For identical polymers, we find a novel r-5 scaling behavior of the van der Waals interaction energy for small inter-polymer separation r, in contradistinction to the r-4 scaling behavior of distinct polymers, with furthermore a pronounced angular dependence favoring attraction between sufficiently aligned identical polymers. Such behavior can assist the molecular recognition between polymers.
AB - We analyze van der Waals interactions between two rigid polymers with sequence-specific, anisotropic polarizabilities along the polymer backbones, so that the dipole moments fluctuate parallel to the polymer backbones. Assuming that each polymer has a quenched-in polarizability sequence which reflects, for example, the polynucleotide sequence of a double-stranded DNA molecule, we study the van der Waals interaction energy between a pair of such polymers with rod-like structure for the cases where their respective polarizability sequences are (i) distinct and (ii) identical, with both zero and non-zero correlation length of the polarizability correlator along the polymer backbones in the latter case. For identical polymers, we find a novel r-5 scaling behavior of the van der Waals interaction energy for small inter-polymer separation r, in contradistinction to the r-4 scaling behavior of distinct polymers, with furthermore a pronounced angular dependence favoring attraction between sufficiently aligned identical polymers. Such behavior can assist the molecular recognition between polymers.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84930959942&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1063/1.4921892
DO - 10.1063/1.4921892
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84930959942
SN - 0021-9606
VL - 142
JO - Journal of Chemical Physics
JF - Journal of Chemical Physics
IS - 21
M1 - 214904
ER -