Excluded volume effects on semiflexible ring polymers

TL;DR

This study investigates how finite thickness and excluded volume effects influence the size, shape, and conformational correlations of two-dimensional semiflexible ring polymers through experiments and simulations.

Contribution

It provides a comparative analysis of models with and without finite thickness, highlighting the impact of excluded volume on polymer conformations.

Findings

Excluded volume causes anisotropic expansion of polymer conformations.

Finite thickness enhances contour correlations.

Shape and size are significantly affected by excluded volume effects.

Abstract

Two-dimensional semiflexible polymer rings are studied both by imaging circular DNA adsorbed on a mica surface and by Monte Carlo simulations of phantom polymers as well as of polymers with finite thickness. Comparison of size and shape of the different models over the full range of flexibilities shows that excluded volume caused by finite thickness induces an anisotropic increase of the main axes of the conformations, a change of shape, accomplished by an enhanced correlation along the contour.