Reduced Persistence Length and Fluctuation-Induced Interactions of Directed Semiflexible Polymers on Fluctuating surfaces

TL;DR

This paper investigates how surface fluctuations influence the rigidity and interactions of directed semiflexible polymers, revealing reduced persistence length and a shift from long-range to short-range fluctuation-induced forces.

Contribution

It demonstrates that surface fluctuations decrease polymer rigidity and alter their interaction range, providing new insights into polymer behavior on fluctuating surfaces.

Findings

Surface fluctuations reduce polymer persistence length.

Long-range fluctuation-induced forces are screened out.

Polymers prefer to bend at close separations.

Abstract

We consider directed semiflexible polymers embedded in a fluctuating surface which is governed by either surface tension or bending rigidity. The attractive interactions induced by the fluctuations of the surface reduce the rigidity of the polymers. In particular, it is shown that for arbitrarily stiff parallel polymers, there is a characteristic separation below which they prefer to bend rather than stay linear. The out-of plane fluctuations of the polymer, screen out the long-range fluctuation-induced forces, resulting in only a short-ranged effective attraction.