Cargando…

Polymer Translocation Across a Corrugated Channel: Fick–Jacobs Approximation Extended Beyond the Mean First-Passage Time

Polymer translocation across a corrugated channel is a paradigmatic stochastic process encountered in diverse systems. The instance of time when a polymer first arrives to some prescribed location defines an important characteristic time-scale for various phenomena, which are triggered or controlled...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Malgaretti, Paolo, Oshanin, Gleb
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6419016/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30960235
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym11020251
_version_ 1783403856035577856
author Malgaretti, Paolo
Oshanin, Gleb
author_facet Malgaretti, Paolo
Oshanin, Gleb
author_sort Malgaretti, Paolo
collection PubMed
description Polymer translocation across a corrugated channel is a paradigmatic stochastic process encountered in diverse systems. The instance of time when a polymer first arrives to some prescribed location defines an important characteristic time-scale for various phenomena, which are triggered or controlled by such an event. Here we discuss the translocation dynamics of a Gaussian polymer in a periodically-corrugated channel using an appropriately generalized Fick–Jacobs approach. Our main aim is to probe an effective broadness of the first-passage time distribution (FPTD), by determining the so-called coefficient of variation [Formula: see text] of the FPTD, defined as the ratio of the standard deviation versus the mean first-passage time (MFPT). We present a systematic analysis of [Formula: see text] as a function of a variety of system’s parameters. We show that [Formula: see text] never significantly drops below 1 and, in fact, can attain very large values, implying that the MFPT alone cannot characterize the first-passage statistics of the translocation process exhaustively well.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-6419016
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2019
publisher MDPI
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-64190162019-04-02 Polymer Translocation Across a Corrugated Channel: Fick–Jacobs Approximation Extended Beyond the Mean First-Passage Time Malgaretti, Paolo Oshanin, Gleb Polymers (Basel) Article Polymer translocation across a corrugated channel is a paradigmatic stochastic process encountered in diverse systems. The instance of time when a polymer first arrives to some prescribed location defines an important characteristic time-scale for various phenomena, which are triggered or controlled by such an event. Here we discuss the translocation dynamics of a Gaussian polymer in a periodically-corrugated channel using an appropriately generalized Fick–Jacobs approach. Our main aim is to probe an effective broadness of the first-passage time distribution (FPTD), by determining the so-called coefficient of variation [Formula: see text] of the FPTD, defined as the ratio of the standard deviation versus the mean first-passage time (MFPT). We present a systematic analysis of [Formula: see text] as a function of a variety of system’s parameters. We show that [Formula: see text] never significantly drops below 1 and, in fact, can attain very large values, implying that the MFPT alone cannot characterize the first-passage statistics of the translocation process exhaustively well. MDPI 2019-02-02 /pmc/articles/PMC6419016/ /pubmed/30960235 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym11020251 Text en © 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Malgaretti, Paolo
Oshanin, Gleb
Polymer Translocation Across a Corrugated Channel: Fick–Jacobs Approximation Extended Beyond the Mean First-Passage Time
title Polymer Translocation Across a Corrugated Channel: Fick–Jacobs Approximation Extended Beyond the Mean First-Passage Time
title_full Polymer Translocation Across a Corrugated Channel: Fick–Jacobs Approximation Extended Beyond the Mean First-Passage Time
title_fullStr Polymer Translocation Across a Corrugated Channel: Fick–Jacobs Approximation Extended Beyond the Mean First-Passage Time
title_full_unstemmed Polymer Translocation Across a Corrugated Channel: Fick–Jacobs Approximation Extended Beyond the Mean First-Passage Time
title_short Polymer Translocation Across a Corrugated Channel: Fick–Jacobs Approximation Extended Beyond the Mean First-Passage Time
title_sort polymer translocation across a corrugated channel: fick–jacobs approximation extended beyond the mean first-passage time
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6419016/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30960235
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym11020251
work_keys_str_mv AT malgarettipaolo polymertranslocationacrossacorrugatedchannelfickjacobsapproximationextendedbeyondthemeanfirstpassagetime
AT oshaningleb polymertranslocationacrossacorrugatedchannelfickjacobsapproximationextendedbeyondthemeanfirstpassagetime