Ejection of a Polymer Chain from a Nanopore: Theory and Computer Experiment

We consider the ejection dynamics of a flexible polymer chain out of confined environment. This situation arises in different physical contexts, including a flexible synthetic polymer partially confined in a nanopore and a viral genome partially ejected from its capsid. We describe the chain release from confinement both analytically and by means of dynamic Monte Carlo simulation. We find two distinct regimes of ejection dynamics depending on whether the chain is fully or partially confined. Partially confined chains are ejected from a pore of length L and diameter D after a typical time τ ∝ L2D5/3, regardless of their contour length N. The process is driven by a constant force f ≈ 5kBT/D a…