Thermal Fluctuations of Elastic Filaments with Spontaneous Curvature and Torsion

S. Panyukov; Y. Rabin

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.85.2404

Thermal Fluctuations of Elastic Filaments with Spontaneous Curvature and Torsion

S. Panyukov and Y. Rabin

Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, 2404 – Published 11 September 2000

Abstract

We study the effects of thermal fluctuations on thin elastic filaments with spontaneous curvature and torsion. We derive analytical expressions for the orientational correlation functions and for the persistence length of helices and find that this length varies nonmonotonically with the strength of thermal fluctuations. In the weak fluctuation regime, the persistence length of a spontaneously twisted helix has three resonance peaks as a function of the twist rate. In the limit of strong fluctuations, all memory of the helical shape is lost.

Received 4 May 2000

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.85.2404

Authors & Affiliations

S. Panyukov^* and Y. Rabin^†

Department of Physics, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan 52900, Israel

^*Present address: Theoretical Department, Lebedev Physics Institute, Russian Academy of Science, Moscow 117924, Russia.
^†Electronic address: yr@rabinws.ph.biu.ac.il