Differences in Muon and Muonium Trapping in A- and B-form DNA and in Individual Nucleic Acids: an \textitab initio study

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Session S8 - Nucleic Acids II.
ORAL session, Wednesday afternoon, March 24
510A, Palais des Congres

[S8.010] Differences in Muon and Muonium Trapping in A- and B-form DNA and in Individual Nucleic Acids: an \textitab initio study

E. Torikai (Yamanashi University, Kofu, Japan; RIKEN, Wako-shi, Japan), R. H. Scheicher, T. P. Das (State University of New York at Albany, Albany NY), F. L. Pratt (ISIS Facility, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Chilton, Didcot, UK), K. Nagamine (KEK-MSL, Tsukuba, Japan)

Muon Spin Relaxation (\muSR) experiments in A- and B-form DNA have shown evidence(E. Torikai et al.), Hyperfine Interactions 138, 509 (2001). for an enhanced electron mobility in the more closely-packed A-form. Besides dynamic effects (electronic diffusion) that could cause the observed difference in muon spin relaxation, one also needs to consider static effects (hyperfine fields) that could alter the relaxation rate of the muon. We are therefore investigating the (static) trapping properties of muon (\mu^+) and muonium (\mu^+e^-) in A-form DNA, B-form DNA and, for comparison, also in the four individual nucleic acids, using the first-principles Hartree-Fock method with MP2. Our aim is to understand how the different structural geometries of the three systems and the respective hydration shells of A- and B-form DNA influence the hyperfine interaction of trapped muonium.

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