Pulling a folded polymer through a nanopore. (7th October 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Ghosh, Bappa; Sarabadani, Jalal; Chaudhury, Srabanti; Ala-Nissila, Tapio
• Is Part Of: Journal of physics. Volume 33:Number 1(2021)
• Publication Date: 2020-10-07
• Subjects: translocation -- folded polymer -- nanopore -- polymer dynamics; Condensed matter -- Periodicals; Matière condensée -- Périodiques; Vaste stoffen; Vloeistoffen; Natuurkunde; Electronic journals; Computer network resources; 530.4105
• DOI: 10.1088/1361-648X/abb687
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0953-8984

Abstract

Abstract: We investigate the translocation dynamics of a folded linear polymer which is pulled through a nanopore by an external force. To this end, we generalize the iso-flux tension propagation theory for end-pulled polymer translocation to include the case of two segments of the folded polymer traversing simultaneously trough the pore. Our theory is extensively benchmarked with corresponding molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The translocation process for a folded polymer can be divided into two main stages. In the first stage, both branches are traversing the pore and their dynamics is coupled. If the branches are not of equal length, there is a second stage where translocation of the shorter branch has been completed. Using the assumption of equal monomer flux of both branches confirmed by MD simulations, we analytically derive the equations of motion for both branches and characterize the translocation dynamics in detail from the average waiting time and its scaling form.