Conformations and dynamics of active star polymers

TL;DR

This paper investigates how active star polymers differ from linear chains in their conformations and dynamics, revealing architecture-dependent behaviors and scaling laws that change at high active forces.

Contribution

It provides a comparative analysis of active star and linear polymers, highlighting the impact of architecture on conformational transitions and scaling behaviors under activity.

Findings

Active star polymers show different stretching behavior than linear chains.

Bond alignment and coordination are better in star polymers.

Scaling laws change above the conformational transition at high active forces.

Abstract

We study conformations and dynamics of active star polymers. The analysis shows that active star polymers stretching behaviour is quite different from that of active linear chains. The visual inspection of conformations and bond-bond correlations reveal a better coordination for the alignment and coordination of bonds for the star polymers than for the linear counterparts. The architecture substantially affects the chain extension transition at high values of active force. The scaling laws for the shape factor and the arm asphericity ratio established for the passive star polymers coincide with the passive case for active force values below the transition. For the values above the transition range the scaling of these quantities switches to different values.