title: Modeling Gaussian-to-self-avoiding-walk crossover for stiff chain polymers.
abstract: We explore the long-standing discrepancy between an experimentally observed sudden onset of the excluded-volume effect in stiff chains [Murakami, Macromolecules 13, 345 (1980)] and much more gradual onset seen by Monte Carlo simulations of the persistent self-avoiding walk model. We find by using various simulations and real-space renormalization methods that, while models incorporating parallel-bond inhibition enhance the excluded-volume effect, they have little effect on the abruptness of its onset. We also observe that relaxational simulations, which include reptationlike motion can, however, lead to a sudden onset much like in the experimental observation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907, USA.
authors.forename: Md Fhokrul
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Islam
authors.forename: Hisao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Nakanishi
mesh_terms: D003198:Computer Simulation; D004548:Elasticity; D008956:Models, Chemical; D008958:Models, Molecular; D015233:Models, Statistical; D008968:Molecular Conformation; D016011:Normal Distribution; D011108:Polymers / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D011108:Polymers