Entangled Dynamics of a Stiff Polymer

TL;DR

This paper develops a quantitative model for the complex entangled dynamics of stiff polymers, validating key scaling relations through large-scale simulations and providing insights into their rotational diffusion and confinement.

Contribution

It introduces a class of reference models for stiff polymer entanglement dynamics and quantitatively supports the tube concept for these polymers.

Findings

Validated scaling relations for stiff polymer dynamics

Determined rotational diffusion coefficient and tube diameter

Provided detailed correlation functions for polymer orientation

Abstract

Entangled networks of stiff biopolymers exhibit complex dynamic response, emerging from the topological constraints that neighboring filaments impose upon each other. We propose a class of reference models for entanglement dynamics of stiff polymers and provide a quantitative foundation of the tube concept for stiff polymers. For an infinitely thin needle exploring a planar course of point obstacles, we have performed large-scale computer simulations proving the conjectured scaling relations from the fast transverse equilibration to the slowest process of orientational relaxation. We determine the rotational diffusion coefficient of the tracer, its angular confinement, the tube diameter and the orientational correlation functions.