Statistical mechanics of semiflexible polymers

Viscoelasticity of Biopolymernetworks and Statistical Mechanics of Semiflexible Polymers

Statistical Mechanics of Aggregation and Crystallization for Semiflexible Polymers

By means of multicanonical computer simulations, we investigate thermodynamic properties of the aggregation of interacting semiflexible polymers. We analyze a mesoscopic beadstick model, where nonbonded monomers interact via Lennard-Jones forces. Aggregation turns out to be a process, in which the constituents experience strong structural fluctuations, similar to peptides in coupled folding-bin...

Statistical mechanics of semiflexible bundles of wormlike polymer chains.

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 cross-linked networks, and in solution.

Elasticity of semiflexible polymers.

We present a method for solving the wormlike chain model for semiflexible polymers to any desired accuracy over the entire range of polymer lengths. Our results are in excellent agreement with recent computer simulations and reproduce important qualitatively interesting features observed in simulations of polymers of intermediate lengths. We also make a number of predictions that can be tested ...

Statistical Mechanics of Semiflexible Chains: A meanfield variational approach