Tube width fluctuations of entangled stiff polymers

Abstract

The tube-like cages of stiff polymers in entangled solutions have been shown to exhibit characteristic spatial heterogeneities. We explain these observations by a systematic theory generalizing previous work by D. Morse (Phys. Rev. E 63:031502, 2001). With a local version of the binary collision approximation (BCA), the distribution of confinement strengths is calculated, and the magnitude and the distribution function of tube radius fluctuations are predicted. Our main result is a unique scaling function for the tube radius distribution, in good agreement with experimental and simulation data.

Major revision (8 pages, 5 figures)