Gain reversal in the translocation dynamics of a semiflexible polymer through a flickering pore

G Upadhyay and R Kapri and A Chaudhuri, JOURNAL OF PHYSICS-CONDENSED MATTER, 36, 185101 (2024).

DOI: 10.1088/1361-648X/ad21a9

We study the driven translocation of a semiflexible polymer through an attractive extended pore with a periodically oscillating width. Similar to its flexible counterpart, a stiff polymer translocates through an oscillating pore more quickly than a static pore whose width is equal to the oscillating pore's mean width. This efficiency quantified as a gain in the translocation time, highlights a considerable dependence of the translocation dynamics on the stiffness of the polymer and the attractive nature of the pore. The gain characteristics for various polymer stiffness exhibit a trend reversal when the stickiness of the pore is changed. The gain reduces with increasing stiffness for a lower attractive strength of the pore, whereas it increases with increasing stiffness for higher attractive strengths. Such a dependence leads to the possibility of a high degree of robust selectivity in the translocation process.

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