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Driven polymer translocation through nanopores: slow versus fast dynamics

We investigate the dynamics of polymer translocation through nanopores under external driving by 3D Langevin Dynamics simulations, focusing on the scaling of the average translocation time $τ$ versus the length of the polymer, $τ\sim N^α$. For slow translocation, i.e., under low driving force and/or high friction, we find $α\approx 1+ν\approx 1.588$ where $ν$ denotes the Flory exponent. In contrast, $α\approx 1.37$ is observed for fast translocation due to the highly deformed chain conformation on the trans side, reflecting a pronounced non-equilibrium situation. The dependence of the translocation time on the driving force is given by $τ\sim F^{-1}$ and $τ\sim F^{-0.80}$ for slow and fast translocation, respectively. These results clarify the controversy on the magnitude of the scaling exponent $α$ for driven translocation.