Buckling, Fluctuations and Collapse in Semiflexible Polyelectrolytes
| dc.creator | Hansen, Per Lyngs | |
| dc.creator | Podgornik, Rudi | |
| dc.creator | Svenšek, Daniel | |
| dc.creator | Parsegian, V. Adrian | |
| dc.date | 1999-02-04 | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2026-07-07T06:27:48Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2026-07-07T06:27:48Z | |
| dc.description | We present a systematic statistical mechanical analysis of the conformational properties of a stiff polyelectrolyte chain with intrachain attractions that are due to counterion correlations. We show that the mean-field solution corresponds to an Euler-like buckling instability. The effect of the conformational fluctuations on the buckling instability is investigated, first, qualitatively, within the harmonic (``semiclassical'') theory, then, systematically, within a 1/d-expansion, where d denotes the dimension of embedding space. Within the ``semiclassical'' approximation, we predict that the effect of fluctuations is to renormalize the effective persistence length to smaller values, but not to change the nature of the mean-field (i.e., buckling) behavior. Based on the 1/d-expansion we are, however, led to conclude that thermal fluctuations are responsible for a change of the buckling behavior which is turned into a polymer collapse. A phase diagram is constructed in which a sequence of collapse transitions terminates at a buckling instability that occurs at a place that varies with the magnitude of the bare persistence length of the polymer chain, as well as with the strength and range of the attractive potential. | |
| dc.description | 30 pages + 4 eps figures | |
| dc.identifier | https://arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/9902075 | |
| dc.identifier | http://arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/9902075 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/97519 | |
| dc.subject | Soft Condensed Matter | |
| dc.subject | Statistical Mechanics | |
| dc.title | Buckling, Fluctuations and Collapse in Semiflexible Polyelectrolytes | |
| dc.type | text |