Thermal conductivity behavior in double-stranded molecular systems (TT 16.1)


DPG Frühjahrstagung der Sektion Kondensierte Materie (SKM) und der Sektion AMOP (SAMOP)<br>DPG Spring Meeting of the Condensed Matter Section (SKM) and the Atomic, Molecular, Plasma Physics and Quantum Optics Section (SAMOP) | event contribution
March 14, 2011 | (HSZ 03) Dresden, Germany

The analysis of the mechanisms mediating energy flow in biomolecules is a fundamental issue for the understanding of many biologically relevant functions. Our interests focus on studying the energy and heat transport along biomolecular systems which present helix structures, i.e. alpha-helices in proteins or double-helix DNA. When dealing with such systems, the anomalous thermal properties of low dimensional systems must be taken into account. For instance, it is well known that one dimensional harmonic lattices are not able to present the proper thermal gradient in a non-equilibrium regime. Furthermore, even when anharmonicity is present in the system, Fourier law is still not valid unless a local potential affects every site of the lattice. Biomolecular systems, specially those containing helix structures, can be considered as ladder models of coupled one-dimensional lattices. In this work we study how the thermal properties of isolated lattices are modified by introducing this coupling. We demonstrate that a harmonic lattice interacting with an anharmonic system is able to support a well defined thermal gradient for a large enough coupling. Our results show that by coupling two lattices with a different strength of anharmonicity heat rectification features can arise.


Authors

Thermal conductivity behavior in double-stranded molecular systems (TT 16.1)


DPG Frühjahrstagung der Sektion Kondensierte Materie (SKM) und der Sektion AMOP (SAMOP)<br>DPG Spring Meeting of the Condensed Matter Section (SKM) and the Atomic, Molecular, Plasma Physics and Quantum Optics Section (SAMOP) | event contribution
March 14, 2011 | (HSZ 03) Dresden, Germany

The analysis of the mechanisms mediating energy flow in biomolecules is a fundamental issue for the understanding of many biologically relevant functions. Our interests focus on studying the energy and heat transport along biomolecular systems which present helix structures, i.e. alpha-helices in proteins or double-helix DNA. When dealing with such systems, the anomalous thermal properties of low dimensional systems must be taken into account. For instance, it is well known that one dimensional harmonic lattices are not able to present the proper thermal gradient in a non-equilibrium regime. Furthermore, even when anharmonicity is present in the system, Fourier law is still not valid unless a local potential affects every site of the lattice. Biomolecular systems, specially those containing helix structures, can be considered as ladder models of coupled one-dimensional lattices. In this work we study how the thermal properties of isolated lattices are modified by introducing this coupling. We demonstrate that a harmonic lattice interacting with an anharmonic system is able to support a well defined thermal gradient for a large enough coupling. Our results show that by coupling two lattices with a different strength of anharmonicity heat rectification features can arise.


Authors