Eur. Phys. J. Special Topics 223, 3201–3213 (2014)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjst/e2014-02327-3

Regular Article

Rotational dynamics of entangled polymers

¹ Laboratoire Charles Coulomb UMR 5221, CNRS & Université Montpellier 2, 34095 Montpellier, France
² Laboratoire de Microbiologie et Génétique Moléculaire UMR5100, CNRS & Université Paul Sabatier Toulouse 3, 31000 Toulouse, France
³ Institute for Theoretical Physics, KU Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200D, 3001 Leuven, Belgium
⁴ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Padua, via Marzolo 8, 35131 Padova, Italy
⁵ INFN, Sezione di Padova, via Marzolo 8, 35131 Padova, Italy

Received: 17 October 2014
Revised: 5 November 2014
Published online: 15 December 2014

Abstract

Some recent results on the rotational dynamics of polymers are reviewed and extended. We focus here on the relaxation of a polymer, either flexible or semiflexible, initially wrapped around a rigid rod. We also study the steady polymer rotation generated by a constant torque on the rod. The interplay of frictional and entropic forces leads to a complex dynamical behavior characterized by non-trivial universal exponents. The results are based on extensive simulations of polymers undergoing Rouse dynamics and on an analytical approach using force balance and scaling arguments. The analytical results are in general in good agreement with the simulations, showing how a simplified approach can correctly capture the complex dynamical behavior of rotating polymers.