Quantum Diffusion in Polaron Model of poly(dG)-poly(dC) and poly(dA)-poly(dT) DNA polymers

TL;DR

This study explores quantum diffusion of electrons in DNA polymers, showing how parameter fluctuations influence wavepacket spread, with regimes leading to ballistic propagation or localization.

Contribution

It introduces a model incorporating colored noise-induced fluctuations to analyze electron dynamics in DNA, revealing the impact of different regimes on wavepacket behavior.

Findings

Correlation decay time controls wavepacket spread

Motional narrowing leads to ballistic propagation

Adiabatic regime causes localization

Abstract

We numerically investigate quantum diffusion of an electron in a model of poly(dG)-poly(dC) and poly(dA)-poly(dT) DNA polymers with fluctuation of the parameters due to the impact of colored noise. The randomness is introduced by fluctuations of distance between two consecutive bases along the stacked base pairs. We demonstrate that in the model the decay time of the correlation can control the spread of the electronic wavepacket. Furthermore it is shown that in a motional narrowing regime the averaging over fluctuation causes ballistic propagation of the wavepacket, and in the adiabatic regime the electronic states are affected by localization.