Raman intensity and spectra predictions for cylindrical viruses

Abstract

A theoretical framework for predicting low frequency Raman vibrational spectra of viral capsids is presented and applied to the M13 bacteriophage. The method uses a continuum elastic theory for the vibrational modes and a bond-charge polarizability model of an amorphous material to roughly predict the Raman intensities. Comparison is made to experimental results for the M13 bacteriophage virus.