Cooperative Dynamics of Highly Entangled Linear Polymers within the Entanglement Tube

We present a quantitative comparison of the dynamic structure factors from unentangled and strongly entangled poly(butylene oxide) (PBO) melts. As expected, the low molecular weight PBO displays Rouse dynamics, however, with very significant subdiffusive center-of-mass diffusion. The spectra from high molecular weight entangled PBO can be very well described by the dynamic structure factor based on the concept of local reptation, including the Rouse dynamics within the tube and allowing for non-Gaussian corrections. Comparing quantitatively the spectra from both polymers leads to the surprising result that their spectra differ only by the contribution of classical Rouse diffusion for the low molecular weight melt. The subdiffusive component is common for both the low and high molecular weight PBO melts, indicating that in both melts the same interchain potential is active, thereby supporting the validity of the Generalized Langevin Equation approach.