Biopolymer hairpin loops sustained by polarons.

We show that polarons can sustain looplike configurations in flexible biopolymers and that the size of the loops depend on both the flexural rigidity of the polymer and the electron-phonon coupling constant. In particular we show that for single stranded DNA (ssDNA) and polyacetylene such loops can have as few as seven monomers. We also show that these configurations are very stable under thermal fluctuations and so could facilitate the formation of hairpin loops of ssDNA.