Eur. Phys. J. E (2009) 29: 157-161
https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/i2009-10463-1

Regular Article

Elasticity transition and loop formation in vibrated bead chains: A simulation of polymer chains

¹ Department of Physics, National Tsing-Hua University, Hsin-chu, Taiwan, R.O.C.
² Department of Physics, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.

^* e-mail: ycchou@phys.nthu.edu.tw

Received: 1 December 2008
Revised: 13 March 2009
Accepted: 15 April 2009
Published online: 11 June 2009

Abstract

By measuring the distribution function of the end-to-end distance, we find that strongly shaken bead chains exhibit many properties, such as the rigid-rod-to-Gaussian chain transition, scaling, fast drop of loop formation probability in the short-chain regime, and enhancement of loop formation probability for kinked chains, of long-chain polymers. Though there is difference in local details between our chains and the worm-like chains, our results are consistent with recent calculations based on the worm-like chain model in many respects.