Unzipping DNA by force: thermodynamics and finite size behaviour

Abstract

We discuss the thermodynamic behaviour near the force induced unzipping transition of double-stranded DNA in two different ensembles. The Y-fork is identified as the coexisting phases in the fixed distance ensemble. From finite size scaling of thermodynamic quantities like the extensibility and the length of the unzipped segment of a Y-fork, the phase diagram can be recovered. We suggest that such procedures could be used to obtain the thermodynamic phase diagram from experiments on finite length DNA.