title: Helical structures from an isotropic homopolymer model.
abstract: We present Monte Carlo simulation results for square-well homopolymers at a series of bond lengths. Although the model contains only isotropic pairwise interactions, under appropriate conditions this system shows spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking, where the chain exists in either a left- or a right-handed helical structure. We investigate how this behavior depends upon the ratio between bond length and monomer radius.
authors.affiliation: School of Chemical Engineering and Analytical Science, The University of Manchester, P.O. Box 88, Sackville Street, Manchester M60 1QD, United Kingdom. j.magee@manchester.ac.uk
authors.forename: James E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Magee
authors.forename: Victor R
authors.initials: VR
authors.lastname: Vasquez
authors.forename: Leo
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lue
mesh_terms: D003198:Computer Simulation; D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry; D008956:Models, Chemical; D008968:Molecular Conformation; D009010:Monte Carlo Method; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D009696:Nucleic Acids / Q000737:chemistry; D011108:Polymers / Q000737:chemistry*; D011487:Protein Conformation; D011506:Proteins / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D009696:Nucleic Acids; D011108:Polymers; D011506:Proteins; D004247:DNA