title: Loop dynamics in DNA denaturation.
abstract: The dynamics of a loop in DNA molecules at the denaturation transition is studied by scaling arguments and numerical simulations. The autocorrelation function of the state of complementary bases (either closed or open) is calculated. The long-time decay of the autocorrelation function is expressed in terms of the loop exponent c both for homopolymers and heteropolymers. This suggests an experimental method for measuring the exponent c using florescence correlation spectroscopy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics of Complex Systems, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel 76100.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bar
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kafri
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Mukamel
mesh_terms: D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry*; D008956:Models, Chemical; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D009691:Nucleic Acid Denaturation; D013816:Thermodynamics
chemical_list: D004247:DNA