https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2013-31120-7
Regular Article
Solitary waves of α-helix propagation in media with arbitrary inhomogeneities
1
Laboratory of Biophysics, Department of Physics, Faculty of
Science, University of Yaounde I, P.O. Box 812, Yaounde, Cameroon
2
Laboratory of Nuclear Physics, Department of Physics, Faculty of
Science, University of Yaounde I, P.O. Box 812, Yaounde, Cameroon
3
Laboratory of Mechanics, Department of Physics, Faculty of
Science, University of Yaounde I, P.O. Box 812, Yaounde, Cameroon
a
e-mail: mvogal2009@yahoo.fr
Received: 12 December 2012
Received in final form: 14 March 2013
Published online: 16 May 2013
We study the dynamics of solitary waves in α-helical proteins going beyond the standard nearest-neighbour interaction by taking into account influence long-range dipole-dipole interactions of the Kac-Baker type. By means of the coherent state representation of operators, the model Hamiltonian is transformed into a pair of classical lattice equations, which is further reduced to a sole nonlinear Schrödinger (NLS) equation using the continuum approximation of which the dispersive coefficient depends on the long-range interactions (LRI) parameter. It comes out from our results that the bright-like solitons, solitary waves which govern the energy transfer in α-helix, are deeply influenced by the LRI. At the end, we transform the NLS equation for more currently-important inhomogeneous NLS models in media with inhomogeneities. Application of this transformation to two example models is illustrated and soliton-like solutions are also graphically discussed.
Key words: Statistical and Nonlinear Physics
© EDP Sciences, Società Italiana di Fisica and Springer-Verlag, 2013
