Nonlinear molecular excitations in a completely inhomogeneous DNA chain

TL;DR

This paper investigates how inhomogeneities in a DNA chain affect the nonlinear dynamics of solitons, revealing that inhomogeneities alter soliton velocity but not width, using a perturbation analysis of a sine-Gordon model.

Contribution

It introduces a perturbation analysis of a sine-Gordon model to describe nonlinear excitations in inhomogeneous DNA, highlighting effects on soliton velocity.

Findings

Inhomogeneities change soliton velocity.

Soliton width remains unaffected by inhomogeneities.

Perturbed kink-antikink solutions model open state configurations.

Abstract

We study the nonlinear dynamics of a completely inhomogeneous DNA chain which is governed by a perturbed sine-Gordon equation. A multiple scale perturbation analysis provides perturbed kink-antikink solitons to represent open state configuration with small fluctuation. The perturbation due to inhomogeneities changes the velocity of the soliton. However, the width of the soliton remains constant.