Positional, reorientational, and bond orientational order in DNA mesophases - art. no. 218101

We investigate the orientational order of transverse polarization vectors o f long,, stiff polymer molecules and their coupling to bond orientational. and positional order in high density mesophases. Homogeneous ordering of tr ansverse polarization vector promotes distortions in the hexatic phase, whe reas inhomogeneous ordering precipitates crystallization of the 2D sections with different orientations of the transverse polarization vector on each molecule in the unit cell. We propose possible scenarios for going from the hexatic phase, through the distorted hexatic phase, to the crystalline pha se with an orthorhombic unit cell observed experimentally for the case of D NA.