Computer Simulation of the Dynamics of a Single Polymer Chain

Abstract

We have carried out computer simulations of the dynamics of a model polymer chain in a solvent. We find that the structure function scales for different chain sizes $N$ as a function of $q=k{N}^{\nu }$ with $\nu =0.6\mathrm{}$ ≃ exponent for the radius of gyration. Furthermore, $S\left(q\right)\mathrm{}\sim q^{-\frac{5}{3}}$ over a wide range, as predicted by Edwards. Time-dependent correlation functions appear to scale as $t{N}^{\alpha }$, with $\alpha \simeq 2\nu +1\mathrm{}$. The time-displaced structure function is of the form $S(k{N}^{\nu },t{N}^{\alpha })$.