title: Buckling of stiff polymers: influence of thermal fluctuations.
abstract: The buckling of biopolymers is a frequently studied phenomenon The influence of thermal fluctuations on the buckling transition is, however, often ignored and not completely understood. A quantitative theory of the buckling of a wormlike chain based on a semiclassical approximation of the partition function is presented. The contribution of thermal fluctuations to the force-extension relation that allows one to go beyond the classical Euler buckling is derived in the linear and nonlinear regimes as well. It is shown that the thermal fluctuations in the nonlinear buckling regime increase the end-to-end distance of the semiflexible rod if it is confined to two dimensions as opposed to the three-dimensional case. The transition to a buckled state softens at finite temperature. We derive the scaling behavior of the transition shift with increasing ratio of contour length versus persistence length.
authors.affiliation: Instituut-Lorentz, Universiteit Leiden, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Emanuel
authors.forename: Hervé
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Mohrbach
authors.forename: Mehmet
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sayar
authors.forename: Helmut
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Schiessel
authors.forename: Igor M
authors.initials: IM
authors.lastname: Kulić
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D001703:Biophysics / Q000379:methods*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D006358:Hot Temperature; D046911:Macromolecular Substances; D008956:Models, Chemical; D008958:Models, Molecular; D015233:Models, Statistical; D008968:Molecular Conformation; D011108:Polymers / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D046911:Macromolecular Substances; D011108:Polymers