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.