Charge transport in a nonlinear, three-dimensional DNA model with disorder

Abstract

We study the transport of charge due to polarons in a model of DNA which takes in account its 3D structure and the coupling of the electron wave function with the H–bond distortions and the twist motions of the base pairs. Perturbations of the ground states lead to moving polarons which travel long distances. The influence of parametric and structural disorder, due to the impact of the ambient, is considered, showing that the moving polarons survive to a certain degree of disorder. Comparison of the linear and tail analysis and the numerical results makes possible to obtain further information on the moving polaron properties.