Shapes of Semiflexible Polymers in Confined Spaces

TL;DR

This paper studies how semiflexible polymers change shape when confined in a square space, revealing a transition influenced by the polymer's stiffness and the confining dimensions, using simulations and theoretical modeling.

Contribution

It introduces a shape transition in confined semiflexible polymers and develops a mean-field model to analyze its impact on effective persistence length.

Findings

Shape transition occurs when persistence length matches box size

Order parameter quantifies the shape change

Mean-field model links shape transition to effective stiffness

Abstract

We investigate the conformations of a semiflexible polymer confined to a square box. Results of Monte Carlo simulations show the existence of a shape transition when the persistence length of the polymer becomes comparable to the dimensions of box. An order parameter is introduced to quantify this behavior. A simple mean-field model is constructed to study the effect of the shape transition on the effective persistence length of the polymer.