Eur. Phys. J. E (2004) 13: 225-237
https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/i2003-10071-1

Calculation of the persistence length of a flexible polymer chain with short-range self-repulsion

Universität Duisburg-Essen, Standort Essen, Universitätsstr. 5, 45117, Essen, Germany

^* e-mail: lsphy@theo-phys.uni-essen.de
^** e-mail: knut@theo-phys.uni-essen.de

Abstract

For a self-repelling polymer chain consisting of n segments we calculate the persistence length , defined as the projection of the end-to-end vector on the direction of the j-th segment. This quantity shows some pronounced variation along the chain. Using the renormalization group and -expansion we establish the scaling form and calculate the scaling function to order . Asymptotically, the simple result emerges for dimension d = 3. Also away from the excluded-volume limit is found to behave very similar to the swelling factor of a chain of length . We carry through simulations which are found to be in good accord with our analytical results. For d = 2 both our and previous simulations as well as theoretical arguments suggest the existence of logarithmic anomalies.