A Monte Carlo study of a tethered polymer chain in a uniform field

Full Paper: Fire study the non-uniform stretching and relaxation of a long flexible end-anchored polymer chain of N monomers (32 less than or equal to N less than or equal to 1024) in a uniform field B by means of an off-latt ice bead-spring Monte Carlo model. Our simulational results for the case of a Rouse-like polymer in the good solvent regime confirm the existence of " trumpet"- and "flower''-type chain conformations, predicted recently by sca ling analysis based on the notion of Pincus tensile blobs. The observed elo ngation of the chain and the critical fields, separating three different re gimes of chain deformation, are found to obey the predicted scaling behavio r. The segment density distribution matches that of a DNA molecule pulled f rom one end at constant velocity in a good solvent. As expected, the relaxa tion of the stretch to coil transition of the polymer of length N is determ ined by the typical Rouse time tau proportional to N2v+1.