Elasticity of connected semiflexible quadrilaterals

Abstract

Using the positional–orientational propagator of a semiflexible filament in the weakly bending regime, we analytically calculate the probability densities associated with the fluctuating tip and the corners of a grafted system of connected quadrilaterals. We calculate closed analytic expressions for the probability densities within the framework of the worm-like chain model, which are valid in the weakly bending regime. The probability densities give the physical quantities related to the elasticity of the system such as the force–extension relation in the fixed extension ensemble, the Poisson's ratio and the average of the force exerted to a confining stiff planar wall by the fluctuating tip of the system. Our analysis reveals that the force–extension relations depend on the contour length of the system (material content), the bending stiffness (chemical nature), the geometrical angle and the number of the quadrilaterals, while the Poisson's ratio depends only on the geometrical angle and the number of the quadrilaterals, and is thus a purely geometric property of the system.