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Updated: Apr 19, 2026

Synthesis of Cyclic Polymers and Characterization of Their Diffusive Motion in the Melt State at the Single Molecule Level
Published on: September 26, 2016
Cyclization kinetics of Gaussian semiflexible polymer chains
T Guérin1, M Dolgushev2, O Bénichou3
1Laboratoire de Physique Théorique de la Matière Condensée, CNRS/UPMC, 4 Place Jussieu, 75005 Paris, France and Laboratoire Ondes et Matière d'Aquitaine, University of Bordeaux, Unité Mixte de Recherche 5798, CNRS, F-33400 Talence, France.
Abstract:
We consider the dynamics and the cyclization kinetics of Gaussian semiflexible chains, in which the interaction potential tends to align successive bonds. We provide asymptotic expressions for the cyclization time, for the eigenvalues and eigenfunctions, and for the mean square displacement at all time and length scales, with explicit dependence on the capture radius, on the positions of the reactive monomers in the chain, and on the finite number of beads. For the cyclization kinetics, we take into account non-Markovian effects by calculating the distribution of reactive conformations of the polymer, which are not taken into account in the classical Wilemski-Fixman theory. Comparison with numerical simulations confirms the accuracy of this non-Markovian theory.
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