Issue |
Europhys. Lett.
Volume 56, Number 4, November 2001
|
|
---|---|---|
Page(s) | 529 - 535 | |
Section | Atomic and molecular physics | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1209/epl/i2001-00553-2 | |
Published online | 01 December 2003 |
Long-lived states in electrophoresis: Collision of a polymer chain with two or more obstacles
1
Research School of Chemistry, Australian National University
Canberra, ACT, Australia
2
Research School of Physical Sciences, Australian National
University Canberra, ACT Australia
3
School of Chemistry, University of Sydney - NSW Australia
Received:
6
March
2001
Accepted:
3
September
2001
We study the long-lived states which occur when a field-driven polymer chain collides with two or more fixed obstacles. For two obstacles we show that below a critical separation distance there are two catenary states, whereas beyond this there are no such states. We further show that for the two long-lived states one is stable and the other is unstable. We introduce a simple model for the dynamics for which many exact results can be obtained. In particular we show that the long-lived states can have two very different ways of unhooking, depending sensitively on the initial conditions.
PACS: 36.20.-r – Macromolecules and polymer molecules / 82.35.Rs – Polyelectrolytes / 45.50.Dd – Dynamics and kinematics of a particle and a system of particles: General motion
© EDP Sciences, 2001
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