Tension dynamics in semiflexible polymers. II. Scaling solutions and applications

Abstract

In part I of this contribution, a systematic coarse-grained description of the dynamics of a weakly bending semiflexible polymer was developed. Here, we discuss analytical solutions of the established deterministic partial integro-differential equation for the spatiotemporal relaxation of the backbone tension. For prototypal experimental situations, such as the sudden application or release of a strong external pulling force, it is demonstrated that the tensile dynamics reflects the self-affine conformational fluctuation spectrum in a variety of intermediate asymptotic power laws. Detailed and explicit analytical predictions for the tension propagation and relaxation and corresponding results for common observables, such as the end-to-end distance, are obtained. © 2007 The American Physical Society.