Polymer unfolding and motion synchronization induced by spatially correlated noise

TL;DR

This study investigates how spatially correlated noise influences a 2D polymer chain, revealing effects like shape preservation, motion synchronization, and spontaneous unfolding driven by noise amplitude and correlation length.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive analysis of polymer behavior under spatially correlated noise, highlighting noise-induced shape preservation and motion synchronization effects.

Findings

Spatial correlations inhibit chain geometry dynamics.

Noise induces beads motion synchronization.

Spontaneous polymer unfolding occurs due to structured noise.

Abstract

The problem of a spatially correlated noise affecting a complex system is studied in this paper. We present a comprehensive analysis of a 2D model polymer chain, driven by the spatially correlated Gaussian noise, for which we have varied the amplitude and the correlation length. The chain model is based on a bead-spring approach, enriched with a global Lennard-Jones potential and angular interactions. We show that spatial correlations in the noise inhibit the chain geometry dynamics, enhancing the preservation of the polymer shape. This is supported by the analysis of correlation functions of both the module length and angles between neighboring modules, which have been measured for the noise amplitude ranging over 3 orders of magnitude. Moreover, we have observed the correlation length dependent beads motion synchronization, and the spontaneous polymer unfolding, resulting from an interplay between chain potentials and the spatially structured noise.