title: Anomalous bending of a polyelectrolyte.
abstract: We report on a study of the shape of a stiff, charged rod that is subjected to equal and opposite force couples at its two ends. Unlike a neutral elastic rod, which forms a constant curvature configuration under such influences, the charged rod tends to flatten in the interior and accumulate the curvature in the end points, to maximally reduce the electrostatic self-repulsion. The effect of this nonuniform bending on the effective elasticity and on the statistical conformations of a fluctuating charged rod is discussed. An alternative definition for the electrostatic persistence length is suggested. This definition is found to be consistent with a corresponding length that can be deduced from the end-to-end distribution function of a fluctuating polyelectrolyte.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, UCLA, 90095-1569, USA.
authors.forename: Roya
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zandi
authors.forename: Joseph
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rudnick
authors.forename: Ramin
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Golestanian