Papers by David Zapata Hernandez
It has been known for some time that semiflexible polymers (such as DNA and actin) form toroids u... more It has been known for some time that semiflexible polymers (such as DNA and actin) form toroids under poor solvent conditions. This is the result of a compromise between the tendency to decrease surface area, and the need to have as little bend as possible. We analyze theoretically the case of a semiflexible copolymer formed by two immiscible blocks. The repulsive interaction between both kinds of blocks is modeled imposing the restriction of no lateral contact. We show analytically that for small bending energies, there should be a transition from a toroidal conformation to a figure 8. Brownian dynamics simulations confirm the predicted transition as well as a number of non-predicted metastable chain conformations.
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Papers by David Zapata Hernandez