Analytical model for the dynamics of semiflexible dendritic polymers

We study the dynamics of semiflexible dendritic polymers following the method of Dolgushev and Blumen [J. Chem. Phys. 131, 044905 (2009)]. The scheme allows to formulate in analytical form the corresponding Langevin equations. We determine the eigenvalues by first block-diagonalizing the problem, which allows to treat even very large dendritic objects. A basic ingredient of the procedure is the observation that a set of eigenmodes in the semiflexible case is similar to that chosen by Cai and Chen [Macromolecules 30, 5104 (1997)] for fully flexible dendritic structures. Varying the flexibility of the macromolecules allows us to better understand their mechanical loss moduli G"(ω) based on their eigenvalue spectra. We present the G"(ω) for a series of stiffness parameters and for different functionalities of the branching points.