Conformational transitions in single polymer molecules modeled with a complete energy landscape: continuous two-state model.

An extension of the two-state Freely Jointed Chain model is presented in which the discrete energies of the two conformers are replaced by continuous functions of the conformer length. The statistical mechanics is initially developed in the Gibbs ensemble and leads to a conformational multi-state model. This is used to fit the equilibrium force-extension curve for Dextran. The continuous model also allows the use of Transfer Matrix methods to calculate all statistical properties in the Helmholtz ensemble, including thermal fluctuations. The latter are obtained with near perfect agreement to experiment.