Solitary waves in DNA and their excitation by terahertz radiation

A.N. Bugay

Joint Institute for Nuclear Research , Russia

Several types of soliton-like excitations in DNA are considered on the basis of extended helicoidal nonlinear dynamical model. They include transverse and longitudinal vibrational excitations and proton tuneling motions withing DNA base pairs. On the basis of theoretical modelling it is demonstrated that terahertz radiation can influence both vibrational excitations in DNA and proton motion in hydrogen bonds. The thermally pre-generated low-amplitude soliton-like excitations can grow and develop into localized metastable conformational domains of DNA under terahertz irradiation.