Ideal linear-chain polymers with fixed angular momentum.

ABSTRACT

The statistical mechanics of a linear noninteracting polymer chain with a large number of monomers is considered with fixed angular momentum. The radius of gyration for a linear polymer is derived exactly by functional integration. This result is then compared to simulations done with a large number of noninteracting rigid links at fixed angular momentum. The simulation agrees with the theory up to finite-size corrections. The simulations are also used to investigate the anisotropic nature of a spinning polymer. We find universal scaling of the polymer size along the direction of the angular momentum, as a function of rescaled angular momentum.