• DOI:10.1103/PhysRevE.93.052408
• Corpus ID: 37774584

Elasticity of a semiflexible filament with a discontinuous tension due to a cross-link or a molecular motor.

@article{Razbin2016ElasticityOA,
  title={Elasticity of a semiflexible filament with a discontinuous tension due to a cross-link or a molecular motor.},
  author={Mohammadhosein Razbin and Panayotis Benetatos and Annette Zippelius},
  journal={Physical review. E},
  year={2016},
  volume={93 5},
  pages={
          052408
        }
}

• Mohammadhosein Razbin, P. Benetatos, A. Zippelius
• Published 18 May 2016
• Physics
• Physical review. E

We analyze the stretching elasticity of a wormlike chain with a tension discontinuity resulting from a Hookean spring connecting its backbone to a fixed point. The elasticity of isolated semiflexible filaments has been the subject in a significant body of literature, primarily because of its relevance to the mechanics of biological matter. In real systems, however, these filaments are usually part of supramolecular structures involving cross-linkers or molecular motors, which cause tension discontinuities. Our model is intended as a minimal structural element incorporating such a discontinuity. We obtain analytical results in the weakly bending limit of the filament, concerning its force-extension relation and the response of the two parts in which the filament is divided by the spring. For a small tension discontinuity, the linear response of the filament extension to this discontinuity strongly depends on the external tension. For large external tension f, the spring force contributes a subdominant correction ∼1/f^{3/2} to the well-known ∼1/sqrt[f]-dependence of the end-to-end extension.