Energy patterns in coupled α-helix protein chains with diagonal and off-diagonal couplings

Abstract

We introduce off-diagonal effects in the three-stranded model of α-helix chains, which bring about additional nonlinear terms to enhance the way energy spreads among the coupled spines. This is analyzed through the modulational instability theory. The linear stability analysis of plane wave solutions is performed and the competitive effects of diagonal and off-diagonal interactions are studied, followed by direct numerical simulations. Some features of the obtained solitonic structures are discussed.