Universal Force Correlations in an RNA-DNA Unzipping Experiment

Abstract

We study unzipping of a complementary RNA-DNA helix applied to an external force, focusing on the force-force correlations. While at the microscopic level these are given by the sequence, the experiment measures effective, macroscopic correlations. The latter are sequence-independent, i.e. universal, and constitute the central object of the underlying field theory of disordered systems. Comparing field-theory predictions and the exact solution of a 1-d toy model with the experiment, we find an excellent agreement, confirming fundamental theoretical concepts via a biologically inspired experiments.

6 pages, 5 figures

References in corpus (1)

• Numerical Calculation of the Functional renormalization group fixed-point functions at the depinning transition

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Experimental test of Sinai's model in DNA unzipping
• Depinning in the quenched Kardar-Parisi-Zhang class I: Mappings, simulations and algorithm
• Roughness and critical force for depinning at 3-loop order
• Force-Force Correlator for Driven Disordered Systems at Finite Temperature
• Large Orders and Strong-Coupling Limit in Functional Renormalization