Laboratoire de Physique Théorique
Toulouse - UMR 5152

We consider the passage (translocation) of a long polymer through a narrow membrane pore. This process plays an important role in many biological and chemical processes, and has some practical applications such as fast DNA sequencing, the possibility to read DNA sequences when it is passing through a particular nano-channel. Many experimental and theoretical studies have been done on this system and it is now understood that this process undergoes anomalous diffusion [1]. We have performed Monte Carlo simulations of the process and, in particular, we have measured the probability distributions Q(t), of the translocation time, and P(s,t), of the translocation coordinate s [2]. We will discuss the differential equations that have been suggested recently for the translocation coordinate and compare our results to the solutions of these equations.

[1] J. Chuang, Y. Kantor, and M. Kardar, Phys. Rev. E 65, 011802 (2001) [2] C. Chatelain, Y. Kantor and M. Kardar, Phys. Rev. E 78, 021129 (2008)