The equilibrium winding angle of a polymer around a bar

J-C Walter*, G. T. Barkema, E. Carlon

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

The probability distribution of the winding angle theta of a planar self-avoiding walk has been known exactly for a long time: it has a Gaussian shape with a variance growing as similar to ln L. For the three-dimensional case of a walk winding around a bar, the same scaling is suggested, based on a first-order epsilon-expansion. We tested this three-dimensional case by means of Monte Carlo simulations up to length L approximate to 25 000 and using exact enumeration data for sizes L (ln L)(2 alpha), with alpha = 0.75(1). The ratio gamma = /(2) = 3.74(5) is incompatible with the Gaussian value gamma = 3, but consistent with the observation that the tail of the probability distribution function p(theta) is found to decrease more slowly than a Gaussian function. These findings are at odds with the existing first-order epsilon-expansion results.

Original languageEnglish
Article number10020
Number of pages16
JournalJournal of Statistical Mechanics: Theory and Experiment
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Oct 2011

Keywords

  • classical Monte Carlo simulations
  • finite-size scaling
  • polymer elasticity
  • SELF-AVOIDING WALKS
  • STATISTICAL-MECHANICS
  • DNA DENATURATION
  • DISTRIBUTIONS
  • MODEL

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