Allowance for Spatial Dispersion of Dielectric Permittivity in Polyelectrolyte Model of DNA

Abstract

In order to allow for real dielectric properties of a solvent in calculating of electrostatic characteristics of strongly charged polyions such as DNA in salt solution we consider a simple model of linear dielectric response of a medium. The interactions between charged particles are treated in the framework of self-consistent-field approximation. The basic characteristic of the problem, electrostatic potential, can be found from the solution of non-linear integro-differential equation. Specifically we consider so-called quasimacroscopic model where dielectric response of a medium depends only on the distance from the polyion. Application of the approach for calculating of the B-to-Z free energy qualitatively retains the main conclusion obtained previously within the model with fixed dielectric constant: non-monotonous behavior of the free energy difference as a function of ionic strength. At the same time, essential sensitivity of the results to specific values of dielectric parameters is observed.