Universal force correlations in an RNA-DNA unzipping experiment

Abstract

We study unzipping of a complementary RNA-DNA helix applied to an external force, focusing on the force-force correlations. While at the microscopic level these are given by the sequence, the experiment measures effective, macroscopic correlations. The latter are sequence independent, i.e., universal, and constitute the central object of the underlying field theory of disordered systems. Comparing field-theory predictions and the exact solution of a one-dimensional toy model with the experiment, we find an excellent agreement, confirming fundamental theoretical concepts via biologically inspired experiments.