Statistical Mechanics of Semiflexible Bundles of Wormlike Polymer Chains

TL;DR

This paper investigates how the bending stiffness of semiflexible wormlike polymer bundles varies with their state, affecting their conformational and mechanical properties across different environments.

Contribution

It introduces a model for state-dependent bending stiffness in wormlike bundles, extending the standard wormlike chain theory to account for bundle-specific behaviors.

Findings

Bending stiffness varies with the bundle state.

Scaling behavior differs from standard wormlike chains.

Mechanical properties depend on environmental context.

Abstract

We demonstrate that a semiflexible bundle of wormlike chains exhibits a state-dependent bending stiffness that alters fundamentally its scaling behavior with respect to the standard wormlike chain. We explore the equilibrium conformational and mechanical behavior of wormlike bundles in isolation, in crosslinked networks, and in solution.