Phase transitions and end effects in models of biopolymers

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Abstract
We investigate, using grand ensemble methods in the thermodynamic limit, the properties of three models simulating the behavior of polypeptides and perfect and imperfect matching polynucleotides. The polypeptide model is found to have no phase transition or significant end effects, while the polynucleotide models may have both. We obtain the presence and order of the phase transition as a function of the parameters of the models. The thermodynamicphase transition which is related to the melting of helical sequences in the long molecule is shown to be accompanied by a structural phase transition consisting in the sudden unwinding of the two strands of the polynucleotide from the ends.

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