2004 Articles

Relaxation Dynamics of Semiflexible Polymers

Bohbot-Raviv, Y.; Zhao, W. Z.; Feingold, M.; Wiggins, Chris H.; Granek, R.

We study the relaxation dynamics of a semiflexible chain by introducing a time-dependent tension. The chain has one of its ends attached to a large bead, and the other end is fixed. We focus on the initial relaxation of the chain that is initially strongly stretched. Using a tension that is self-consistently determined, we obtain the evolution of the end-to-end distance with no free parameters. Our results are in good agreement with single molecule experiments on double stranded DNA.