The Storm and Nelsons model for polymer stretching revisited

The quite recent technological rise in molecular biology allowed single molecule manipulation experiments, where molecule stretching plays a primary role. In order to understand the experimental data, it is felt the urge of some physical and mathematical models to quantitatively express the mechanical properties of the observed molecules. In this paper we reconsider a simple phenomenological model which reproduces the behaviour of single and double stranded DNA under tension. The problem is easily solved via the cavity method both in the small forces range and in presence of overstretching transition, so that some properties such as bending stiffness and elasticity of DNA emerge in a very clear manner. Our theoretical findings are successfully fitted to real measurements and compared to Monte Carlo simulations, confirming the quality of the approach.