Effects of intrinsic base-pair fluctuations on charge transport in DNA

We investigate propagation of a charge carrier along intrinsically dynamically disordered double-stranded DNA. This is realized by the semiclassical coupling of the charge with a nonlinear lattice model that can accurately describe the statistical mechanics of the large amplitude fluctuations of the base pairs leading to the thermal denaturation transition of DNA. We find that the fluctuating intrinsic disorder can trap the charge and inhibit polaronic charge transport. The dependence of the mean distance covered by the charge carrier until its trapping, as a function of the energy of the fluctuations of the base pairs is also presented.