Efimov-Like Behaviour in Low-Dimensional Polymer Models

Mura, Federica; Bhattacharjee, Somendra M.; Maji, Jaya; Masetto, Mario; Seno, Flavio und Trovato, Antonio (2016): Efimov-Like Behaviour in Low-Dimensional Polymer Models. In: Journal of Low Temperature Physics, Bd. 185, Nr. 1-2: S. 102-121

Abstract

In the quantum Efimov effect, identical bosons form infinitely many bound trimer states at the bound dimer dissociation threshold, with their energy spectrum obeying a universal geometrical scaling law. Inspired by the formal correspondence between the possible trajectories of a quantum particle and the possible conformations of a polymer chain, the existence of a triple-stranded DNA bound state when a double-stranded DNA is not stable was recently predicted by modelling three directed polymer chains in low-dimensional lattices, both fractal () and euclidean (). A finite melting temperature for double-stranded DNA requires in the introduction of a weighting factor penalizing the formation of denaturation bubbles, that is non-base paired portions of DNA. The details of how bubble weighting is defined for a three-chain system were shown to crucially affect the presence of Efimov-like behaviour on a fractal lattice. Here we assess the same dependence on the euclidean lattice, by setting up the transfer matrix method for three infinitely long chains confined in a finite size geometry. This allows us to discriminate unambiguously between the absence of Efimov-like behaviour and its presence in a very narrow temperature range, in close correspondence with what was already found on the fractal lattice. When present, however, no evidence is found for triple-stranded bound states other than the ground state at the two-chain melting temperature.

• Dokumententyp: Zeitschriftenartikel
• Fakultät: Physik
• Themengebiete: 500 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik > 530 Physik
• ISSN: 0022-2291
• Sprache: Englisch