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Backfolding Of Wormlike Chains Confined In Nanochannels, Abhiram Muralidhar, Douglas R. Tree, Kevin D. Dorfman

Faculty Publications

Using pruned-enriched Rosenbluth method (PERM) simulations of a discrete wormlike chain model, we provide compelling evidence in support of Odijk’s prediction of two distinct Odijk regimes for a long wormlike chain confined in a nanochannel. In both cases, the chain of persistence length lp is renormalized into a series of deflection segments of characteristic length D2/3lp1/3, where D is the channel size. In the first (classic) Odijk regime, these deflection segments are linearly ordered. In the second Odijk regime, thin, long wormlike chains can backfold at a length scale quantified by the global persistence length. We …