Brownian dynamics study of the relaxation behavior of linear and ring polymers

Abstract

The relaxation behavior of single linear and ring polymers, with and without excluded volume, is studied by Brownian dynamics. The velocity, angular momentum, and end-to-end vector autocorrelation functions are investigated. It is found that the velocity and angular momentum autocorrelation functions decay exponentially and that the time dependence of the vector end-to-end autocorrelation function is mainly determined by the time dependence of its direction.