Quantum effective potential, electron transport and conformons in biopolymers

TL;DR

This paper models biopolymer conformations using solitary waves and links the quantum effective potential from bends and twists to the concept of conformons, connecting biological hypotheses with soliton solutions of nonlinear equations.

Contribution

It introduces a quantum effective potential framework for biopolymer conformations and formalizes the concept of conformons using soliton solutions in a biological context.

Findings

Quantum effective potential relates to biopolymer bends and twists.

Conformons are formalized via soliton solutions of the nonlinear Schrödinger equation.

The model connects biophysical phenomena with mathematical soliton theory.

Abstract

In the Kirchhoff model of a biopolymer, conformation dynamics can be described in terms of solitary waves, for certain special cross-section asymmetries. Applying this to the problem of electron transport, we show that the quantum effective potential arising due to the bends and twists of the polymer enables us to formalize and quantify the concept of a {\it conformon} that has been hypothesized in biology. Its connection to the soliton solution of the cubic nonlinear Schr\"{o}dinger equation emerges in a natural fashion.