Criteria for minimal model of driven polymer translocation

Abstract

While the characteristics of the driven translocation for asymptotically long polymers are well understood, this is not the case for finite-sized polymers, which are relevant for real-world experiments and simulation studies. Most notably, the behavior of the exponent $\alpha$, which describes the scaling of the translocation time with polymer length, when the driving force $f_p$ in the pore is changed, is under debate. By Langevin dynamics simulations of regular and modified translocation models using the freely-jointed-chain polymer model we find that a previously reported incomplete model, where the {\it trans} side and fluctuations were excluded, gives rise to characteristics that are in stark contradiction with those of the complete model, for which $\alpha$ increases with $f_p$. Our results suggest that contribution due to fluctuations is important. We construct a minimal model where dynamics is completely excluded to show that close alignment with a full translocation model can be achieved. Our findings set very stringent requirements for a minimal model that is supposed to describe the driven polymer translocation correctly.

8 pages, 8 figures

References in corpus (3)

• Nonequilibrium dynamics of polymer translocation and straightening
• Dynamics of forced biopolymer translocation
• Critical evaluation of the computational methods used in the forced polymer translocation

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• Quantification of tension to explain bias dependence of driven polymer translocation dynamics
• Driven polymer translocation in good and bad solvent: effects of hydrodynamics and tension propagation
• Uniform description of polymer ejection dynamics from capsid with and without hydrodynamics
• Polymer translocation driven by longitudinal and transversal time-dependent end-pulling forces