Berlin 2008 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 19: Semiflexible Polymers and Networks

BP 19.3: Talk

Wednesday, February 27, 2008, 18:00–18:15, PC 203

Stretching of buckled filaments by thermal fluctuations — •Krzysztof Baczynski, Reinhard Lipowsky, and Jan Kierfeld — Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Department of Theory & Bio - Systems, Science Park Golm, 14424 Potsdam, Germany

We study the buckling instability of filaments or elastic rods in two spatial dimensions in the presence of thermal fluctuations. We present an analytical solution based on a renormalization-like procedure where we integrate out short wavelength fluctuations in order to obtain an effective theory governing the buckling instability. We calculate the resulting shift of the critical force by fluctuation effects and the average projected filament length parallel to the force direction as a function of the applied force and of the contour length of the filament. We find that, in the buckled state, thermal fluctuations lead to an increase in the mean projected length of the filament in the force direction. As a function of the contour length, the mean projected length exhibits a cusp at the buckling instability, which becomes rounded by thermal fluctuations. Our analytic results are confirmed by Monte Carlo simulations.