Abstract
We examine the behavior of a model which describes the melting of double-stranded DNA chains. The model, with displacement-dependent stiffness constants and a Morse on-site potential, is analyzed numerically; depending on the stiffness parameter, it is shown to have either (i) a second-order transition with (characteristic of short-range attractive part of the Morse potential) or (ii) a first-order transition with finite melting entropy, discontinuous fraction of bound pairs, divergent correlation lengths, and critical exponents .
- Received 5 January 2000
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.85.6
©2000 American Physical Society