POSSIBILITY OF SUPERCONDUCTIVE-TYPE ENHANCED CONDUCTIVITY IN DNA AT ROOM TEMPERATURE

Applying Little's formalism to investigate the possibility of superconductive regions at room temperature in organic polymers, we have calculated the Coulomb and effective attractive terms for the polycytosine homopolynucloetide. Little's original idea that the effective interaction between the mobile electrons of the spine is due to the polarization of the side-chain electrons has been extended to take into account the polarization of the σ electrons of the same systems which provide the mobile electrons. According to the results obtained for many intraband and interband scattering processes, the absolute value of the attractive term is larger than, or about the same as, that of the Coulomb term. Therefore, we cannot exclude the possibility of superconductive-type enhanced conductivity in some regions of DNA. Finally, the effects of the finite dimensions of a cytosine molecule are discussed from the point of view of screening and thermodynamic fluctuations. © 1969 The American Physical Society.