title: From flexible to stiff: systematic analysis of structural phases for single semiflexible polymers.
abstract: Inspired by recent studies revealing unexpected pliability of semiflexible biomolecules like RNA and DNA, we systematically investigate the range of structural phases by means of a simple generic polymer model. Using a two-dimensional variant of Wang-Landau sampling to explore the conformational space in energy and stiffness within a single simulation, we identify the entire diversity of structures existing from the well-studied limit of flexible polymers to that of wormlike chains. We also discuss, in detail, the influence of finite-size effects in the formation of crystalline structures that are virtually inaccessible via conventional computational approaches.
authors: Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA. dseaton@mit.edu
authors: Daniel T
authors: DT
authors: Seaton
authors: Stefan
authors: S
authors: Schnabel
authors: David P
authors: DP
authors: Landau
authors: Michael
authors: M
authors: Bachmann
mesh_terms: D001704:Biopolymers / Q000737:chemistry*; D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry; D008956:Models, Chemical; D008958:Models, Molecular; D012313:RNA / Q000737:chemistry; D013816:Thermodynamics
chemical_list: D001704:Biopolymers; D012313:RNA; D004247:DNA